Greek chicken with greens, capers and skordalia

Chicken with potatoes, oregano and lemon is aGreek classic and a brilliant Sunday lunch dish. This is just a little morespecial, and perfect for an Easter feast. Skordalia is a garlicsauce based on potatoes, bread or nuts. This one is half bread and half nuts,as I liked the idea of serving roast chicken and potatoes with a bread sauce (aswe do in Britain)… but of a very different kind.
One last thing: yourstock should be pale. If you use a dark stock, the potatoes end up pretty brownin colour. It still tastes good but doesn’t look quite as nice.
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Greek chicken with greens, capers and skordalia

Chicken with potatoes, oregano and lemon is aGreek classic and a brilliant Sunday lunch dish. This is just a little morespecial, and perfect for an Easter feast. Skordalia is a garlicsauce based on potatoes, bread or nuts. This one is half bread and half nuts,as I liked the idea of serving roast chicken and potatoes with a bread sauce (aswe do in Britain)… but of a very different kind.
One last thing: yourstock should be pale. If you use a dark stock, the potatoes end up pretty brownin colour. It still tastes good but doesn’t look quite as nice.
Couverts8
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • 4 garlic cloves
  • sea salt flakes and pepper
  • 1½ tbsp dried wild oregano
  • 8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • juice of 2 lemons
  • 1.8 kg 4lb chicken
  • 1.2 kg 2lb 10oz waxy potatoes, peeled and quartered
  • 300 ml ½ pint light chicken stock
  • 350 g 12oz spinach leaves, coarse stalks removed, torn
  • 150 g 5½oz frisee leaves (also known as curly endive), use the paler leaves, torn
  • 3 tbsp capers rinsed

FOR THE SKORDALIA

  • 75 g 2¾oz coarse white bread, without crusts
  • 6 garlic cloves chopped
  • ½ tsp sea salt flakes
  • 75 g 2¾oz pine nuts, toasted
  • 200 ml 7fl oz extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 –4 tbsp red wine vinegar

Instructions

  • Start with the chicken.
  • Put the garlic in a mortar with some sea salt and pepper and crush to a paste.
  • Add the oregano and pound again, then 5 tbsp of the olive oil and half the lemon juice.
  • Put the chicken in a roasting tin in which the potatoes will fit as well and rub the mixture over it, especially on the breast.
  • Cover with cling film and put in the fridge for a couple of hours.
  • Bring it to room temperature before cooking.
  • When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Put the potatoes in the tin around the chicken, drizzle with the remaining olive oil and lemon juice and season.
  • Heat the stock and pour it over.
  • Roast for 1 hour 20 minutes, basting.
  • Make the skordalia.
  • Put the bread in a bowl.
  • Sprinkle with 100ml (3½fl oz) of water and leave to soak, then squeeze the water from the bread.
  • Put the garlic into a mortar with the salt and grind to a paste.
  • Pound in the bread, then the nuts (it’s hard, but gives a better texture than the food processor, though use that if you prefer).
  • Add the oil gradually, pounding and mixing after each addition, then add the vinegar to taste and pepper.
  • It should be like bread sauce.
  • If it’s too thick, add a little hot water and taste in case you need to adjust the seasoning.
  • When the chicken is cooked, lift it on to a heated platter, cover with foil and rest for 15 minutes.
  • Set the roasting tin over a medium heat.
  • If there is a lot of liquid, boil so it evaporates, stirring the potatoes (try not to break them up; be gentle).
  • Add the spinach and frisee and turn with the potatoes so they wilt.
  • The frisee won’t wilt very much, that’s fine.
  • Toss the capers in and taste for seasoning.
  • Put the potatoes and greens round the chicken on its platter and serve with the skordalia on the side.
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Course; Chicken