Recipes

Chicken with dill and leeks

Chicken with dill and leeks

You might think this recipe comes from Scandinavia – land of dill lovers – but in fact it was inspired by a fish dish I had in Turkey, where whole fish were cooked on a bed of potatoes and dill (and a little raki). You can go the raki route if you prefer. This is a very comforting dish, but light and spring-like at the same time. You need a bit of colour, so serve it with roast tomatoes or a carrot purée. If you’re not a dill enthusiast then make this dish with parsley; it’s different, but just as good.
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Ingredients

  • 10 g ¼oz dill
  • 75 g 2¾oz unsalted butter, slightly softened
  • 2 kg 4lb 8oz chicken
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 lemon
  • 500 g 1lb 2oz waxy potatoes, peeled
  • 4 leeks
  • 400 ml 14fl oz chicken stock
  • 3 –4 tbsp dry vermouth
  • 4 tbsp crème fraîche optional

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.
  • Remove the coarser stems from the dill and set them aside.
  • Take the rest of the dill – the light, leafy part – and roughly chop it.
  • Mash the butter with half the chopped dill.
  • Carefully lift the skin of the breast and legs and push under about half the butter (see technique for Roast chicken with mushrooms and sage butter under the skin).
  • Spread the remaining butter over the bird as well and season with salt and pepper.
  • Put in a roasting tin or a flame-and ovenproof dish from which you can serve the bird.
  • Squeeze the lemon over, then put the shells into the cavity of the bird with the stems of the dill.
  • Truss the chicken, if you like.
  • Cook in the hot oven for 20 minutes.
  • Slice the potatoes to about the thickness of a pound coin.
  • Wash the leeks, cut off and discard most of the dark green tops and the bases.
  • Chop them into 4cm (1½in) lengths.
  • Wash the chunks of leek thoroughly to ensure you get rid of any soil.
  • Take the chicken out of the oven and put the potatoes and leeks around it, turning to coat in the juices.
  • Season.
  • Heat the stock to boiling and pour it on to the vegetables with the vermouth.
  • Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and return the bird to the oven for one hour.
  • The potatoes will become tender and the cooking liquid reduce significantly.
  • If the vegetables haven’t absorbed all the liquid, remove the chicken to a warmed platter and insulate with foil to keep it warm.
  • Set the roasting tin on the hob and boil until the liquid mostly disappears.
  • You can, at this stage, add the crème fraîche (it’s entirely a matter of taste, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t).
  • Heat this through – it doesn’t have to be completely mixed into the vegetables, there is a rough edge to this dish that makes it all the more satisfying.
  • Check the vegetables for seasoning.
  • Put the bird back on top of the vegetables, throw on the rest of the chopped dill and serve.
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Course; Chicken

Negima yakitori

Negima yakitori

This is a popular Japanese yakitori dish. There it is made with a vegetable called negi, a kind of Japanese long onion. Here, fat spring onions are the things to use. Togarashi is a hot, citrussy Japanese spice blend. Waitrose now sell an own-label version, or you can easily get it online. If you’re using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 30 minutes so that they don’t burn.
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Ingredients

FOR THE YAKITORI SAUCE

  • 250 ml 9fl oz soy sauce
  • 125 ml 4fl oz sake or dry sherry
  • 125 ml 4fl oz mirin
  • 3 tbsp soft light brown sugar
  • 4 garlic cloves crushed
  • 3 cm 1¼in root ginger, peeled and grated

FOR THE SKEWERS

  • 900 g 2lb skinless boneless chicken thighs
  • 16 spring onions
  • salt and pepper
  • flavourless vegetable oil optional
  • togarashi and sesame seeds to sprinkle

Instructions

  • Put all the ingredients for the sauce into a saucepan and gently bring to the boil, stirring a little to help the sugar dissolve.
  • Reduce the heat and simmer for eight to 10 minutes.
  • The mixture should look syrupy and will thicken more as it cools.
  • Leave to cool.
  • Cut the chicken with the grain into 5 x 2cm (2 x ¾in) slices.
  • Remove the softer green bits from the spring onions and trim the tufty base.
  • You need the small bulb and the firmer bits of green for this.
  • Cut the spring onions into 6cm (2½in) lengths.
  • Fold each piece of chicken in half and thread on to wooden or metal skewers, alternating with a piece of spring onion.
  • When they are ready, gently press with the heel of your hand to compact the chicken and neaten the whole skewer.
  • If cooking on a barbecue, just season the skewers.
  • If cooking on a griddle pan, heat until it’s really hot, brush the skewers with oil, then sprinkle with salt.
  • Cook, turning every minute or so, for about seven minutes.
  • Move them around so they cook evenly and adjust the heat as needed.
  • Now brush the skewers with the sauce and cook for another two or three minutes, turning the skewers every 30 seconds or so and brushing them with sauce.
  • You need to control the heat so the sauce doesn’t burn (though a bit of caramelization is good) and the chicken cooks through (check for doneness by cutting into a larger piece).
  • When the chicken is cooked, brush with more teriyaki and sprinkle with togarashi and sesame seeds.
  • Serve with boiled rice, or just salad (the vegetable bit of the Japanese salad is good).
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Course; Chicken
Cuisine; Japanese

Koriander-seared chicken with hot-and-cold cucumber relish

Koriander-seared chicken with hot-and-cold cucumber relish

I cannot resist the combination of cold ingredients with hot, both in temperature and in spiciness. In my previous book, A Change of Appetite, there was a dish of chilled cucumber with chilli and pickled ginger that everyone loved, so I’m revisiting the idea. The salad here is adapted from a recipe in Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid; they came across the dish in Yunnan. You can serve a chilli sauce on the side as well, but there is something pure and simple about just having chicken and cucumber.
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

FOR THE CUCUMBER

Instructions

  • Start with the chicken.
  • Put the garlic and peppercorns into a mortar and crush them, then add the coriander and continue until you have a rough paste.
  • Add the fish sauce and lime juice.
  • Put the chicken thighs in a dish and pour over the paste.
  • Turn the chicken over with your hands, to coat.
  • Cover loosely with cling film and put in the fridge for about four hours.
  • Bring to room temperature before cooking.
  • Now for the cucumber.
  • Peel it and halve lengthways.
  • Cut into four lengths and scoop out the seeds using a teaspoon (discard them).
  • Bash the cucumber with a rolling pin, then break it into pieces with your hands.
  • This might seem odd, but it helps the flesh to absorb other flavours.
  • Put the rice vinegar and sugar into a bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar.
  • Add the cucumber and put in the coldest bit of the fridge (you can even stick it in the freezer for the time it takes you to griddle the chicken).
  • Heat the griddle pan, brush some oil over the chicken pieces and throw them on the griddle.
  • Cook over a high heat to get a good colour on both sides, then reduce the heat until cooked right through (it will take seven or eight minutes in all, though thighs vary greatly in size, even when from the same packet; very annoying).
  • The coriander and garlic from the marinade that sticks to the chicken will turn dark and charred, but it’s delicious so don’t panic about that (but don’t burn the garlic!
  • ).
  • Heat the oil for the cucumber in a frying pan or wok until it is really hot and stir-fry the fresh chillies, dried chillies and peppercorns for about 30 seconds.
  • Pour this over the cucumber, sprinkle on the coriander and salt and serve with the chicken.
  • Brown rice is good on the side, if you want something starchy.
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Course; Chicken

Buttermilk chicken with chipotle slaw

Buttermilk chicken with chipotle slaw

Buttermilk does amazing things to chicken, tenderizing and flavouring the flesh right to the bone. It’s a favourite treatment among American cooks and has become one of mine (I had previously only used buttermilk for making cakes and soda bread). The slaw is from the boys at Pitt Cue, the London gaff (I’m not sure it can really be called a restaurant as most people leave with food splashed down their fronts) that has put barbecue (and all things connected to it) firmly on the hipster map. Richard Turner, chef in them there parts, has allowed me to use it (I’ve changed it only slightly). He’s a doll who, despite being a worshipper of all things porcine, makes bloody good salads. You can cook this in the oven as well as on the barbecue, so I’ve given instructions for both.
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

FOR THE SLAW

  • ½ white cabbage cored and shredded
  • ¼ red cabbage cored and shredded
  • finely grated zest of 1 lime plus juice of 2, or more to taste
  • 1 garlic clove grated
  • 150 g 5½oz mayonnaise
  • 25 g scant 1oz canned chipotles in adobo, puréed, or 2 tbsp chipotle paste, or to taste
  • 2 big tbsp soured cream
  • leaves from 1 bunch of coriander chopped
  • a little extra virgin olive oil if needed

Instructions

  • Mix together the buttermilk, garlic and cayenne with plenty of salt and pepper.
  • Using a small sharp knife, cut slits in the fleshy bits of the chicken thighs without piercing the skin.
  • Put it in a dish and pour over the marinade.
  • Turn the pieces, cover and refrigerate for 24 hours, turning every so often.
  • Bring to room temperature before cooking.
  • To cook on the barbecue: prepare the barbecue and get it to the stage where the coals are hot but no longer flaming.
  • Shake off the excess marinade then gently wipe the chicken with kitchen paper so that no buttermilk will drip on to the coals (or it creates flames that burn the chicken).
  • Set on the rack, cover with a lid and cook for 40–45 minutes, turning halfway.
  • Check for doneness: the juice that runs when you pierce the flesh near the bone should be clear with no trace of pink.
  • Or preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
  • Gently shake off the excess marinade (but don’t wipe the chicken).
  • Put the joints into a roasting tin.
  • Roast for 40 minutes, or until cooked through.
  • Cover with foil if the surface is getting too dark.
  • Meanwhile, make the slaw.
  • Put both cabbages into a bowl and toss in the lime zest and juice, the garlic and salt and pepper.
  • Mix the mayonnaise with the chipotles.
  • Add the soured cream and carefully stir this into the cabbage with the coriander.
  • You might want to adjust now according to both taste and texture.
  • If the mixture is too thick I sometimes add 1–2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.
  • Flavour wise you might want a little more chipotle or lime juice.

Notes & Wine Advice

Serve the chicken thighs on a platter with the slaw on the side.
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Course; Chicken

Thyme-griddled chicken with smoky chilli butter

Thyme-griddled chicken with smoky chilli butter

Easy – it’s just griddled chicken with a flavoured butter – but mouth-wateringly good. Perfect for a summer supper, or a cool early autumn evening.
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Ingredients

FOR THE BUTTER

FOR THE CHICKEN

Instructions

  • To make the butter, just mash all the ingredients together and refrigerate.
  • When the butter has firmed up, put it on to a piece of greaseproof paper and roll it into a neat sausage shape.
  • Wrap in the paper and chill.
  • Hammer the chicken thighs so that they are flattened (use a meat mallet or a rolling pin).
  • Brush with oil and season with cayenne pepper, salt and pepper.
  • Heat a griddle pan and cook the chicken on both sides, initially on a high heat to get a good colour.
  • Do not turn the chicken thighs until they will lift easily from the pan, or you will tear the flesh.
  • Reduce the heat under the griddle to cook right through (about eight minutes).

Notes & Wine Advice

Serve the chicken with a round of the flavoured butter on top; it will start to melt as soon as it hits the hot flesh. Scatter with sprigs of thyme.
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Course; Butter / Chicken

Indian-spiced chicken with coriander chutney

Indian-spiced chicken with coriander chutney

Good for a midweek supper, or equally enjoyable cooked on the barbecue in summer. The chicken becomes lovely and smoky. Make sure you leave it to marinate properly, it really makes a difference. A tomato marinade might seem extravagant, so cook it when they are cheap and abundant, or when you have a glut of tomatoes that are past their best (a bit soft).
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

FOR THE CHUTNEY

Instructions

  • Put everything for the chicken – except the chicken itself and the oil – into a food processor with the coriander stalks (from the chutney ingredients list).
  • Whizz to a rough purée.
  • If the chicken breasts are very thick, cut them in half horizontally.
  • Whether you’re using breasts or thighs, pierce them all over with the point of a sharp knife.
  • Put the chicken into a dish and pour the puréed tomato mixture all over them.
  • Turn them over in the marinade, cover with cling film and put in the fridge for two hours (or overnight).
  • Turn the chicken pieces over every so often.
  • Bring to room temperature before cooking.
  • To make the chutney, put the coriander leaves into a food processor with all the other ingredients and whizz.
  • Taste.
  • You might need more lime juice.
  • Scrape into a bowl.
  • Heat a griddle until it’s very hot.
  • Lift the chicken out of its marinade and brush the pieces on each side with the oil.
  • Cook on a high heat for about three minutes, turning once (and moving the chicken round the griddle so that no pieces are cooking in the less-hot patches).
  • Season.
  • Reduce the heat and cook for about two minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through (but not overcooked, it should still be moist).
  • Thighs will take longer than breasts.
  • Serve the chicken with the coriander chutney, a bowl of cucumber raita and some rice.
  • (I must say I also love a mango and watercress salad with it, but I always love a mango and watercress salad…)
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Course; Chicken
Cuisine; India

Pomegranate and honey-glazed chicken skewers

Pomegranate and honey-glazed chicken skewers

These look very pretty. They make good picnic food, too. If I’m taking them on a picnic I usually make a little fresh marinade (don’t use the marinade in which the chicken has already been steeping; you must make fresh stuff) and brush the chicken skewers with it before packing them. It helps keep them moist. Don’t forget that wooden skewers need to be soaked in water in advance for about 30 minutes; this stops them burning on the griddle.
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Ingredients

FOR THE MARINADE

FOR THE CHICKEN

Instructions

  • Mix everything for the marinade together in a shallow dish.
  • Cut the chicken into chunks, about 2cm (¾in) square.
  • Put the chicken in the marinade, turning to coat, cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight.
  • Bring to room temperature before cooking.
  • Thread the chicken pieces on to skewers and season with salt and pepper.
  • Heat a griddle pan and cook the skewers over a medium heat, turning them to cook on all sides.
  • If you don’t have a griddle pan, heat a little oil in a large frying pan and cook them in that.
  • Either way, it takes about 10 minutes.
  • Be careful not to burn the outside of the chicken before the inside is cooked (this is easily done because of the honey in the marinade).
  • Adjust your heat accordingly.
  • Toss the onion, coriander and pistachios lightly with the virgin oil and lemon.
  • Season.
  • Put the salad on a big platter.
  • Put the hot skewers on the platter, too and scatter with pomegranate seeds (if using).
  • A bowl of Greek yogurt, into which you have stirred some chopped mint leaves and crushed garlic, is lovely with this.
  • Flatbread or bulgar wheat make good starchy side dishes.
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Course; Chicken

Ginger beer can chicken

Ginger beer can chicken

This is honestly a basic guide from which you can spin off in all sorts of directions. First of all you can use different beers (I have even used honey porter in the past), or a mixture of beers. Make it spicier, use different herbs, add mustard, citrus juice, whatever. Play around. The only thing that’s important is the beer and the technique of cooking. A few have complained that the method doesn’t actually work, that you don’t need to put the open beer can inside the bird, but part of the fun – in my house anyway – is in getting the bird on and off the barbecue with the can in it. And it’s always damned delicious, moist and smoky. You do need tomato sauce, not ketchup. Use regular beer if you prefer, but my kids love this version.
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Ingredients

  • 1.8 kg 4lb chicken

FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE

FOR THE MARINADE

  • 400 ml 14fl oz ginger beer, plus 300ml can of ginger beer
  • 125 ml 4fl oz good-quality tomato sauce, preferably home-made
  • 40 g 1½oz root ginger, peeled and grated
  • 6 garlic cloves grated
  • 4 red chillies stalks removed, finely chopped (I leave the seeds in)
  • ¾ tbsp smoked paprika
  • leaves from 8 sprigs of thyme
  • 3 tbsp soft dark brown sugar

Instructions

  • To make the tomato sauce, heat the olive oil in a saucepan and gently sauté the onion until soft but not coloured.
  • Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
  • Stir in the tomatoes, 125ml (4fl oz) of water, the seasoning and sugar.
  • Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, making sure it doesn’t become too dry.
  • Leave to cool, then purée.
  • Mix 100ml of the beer in a large bowl, big enough to contain the chicken, with all the other marinade ingredients.
  • Put the chicken in the bowl, too, and rub the marinade all over it inside and out.
  • Cover loosely with foil or cling film and put in the fridge for eight hours.
  • Then remove from the fridge and pour over the remaining 300ml (½ pint) of ginger beer plus 100ml of the canned stuff (keep the rest in the can).
  • Cover, return to the fridge and marinate for 24 hours, turning every so often.
  • Prepare a lidded barbecue to the stage where the coals are hot but no longer flaming.
  • Shake the marinade off the chicken and pat dry with kitchen paper.
  • Season.
  • Place the chicken on the opened ginger beer can so the can is in the cavity.
  • Place the can and chicken on to a rack off the barbecue, then put the rack on to the barbecue so that the base of the can is on the rack and the chicken is sitting upright.
  • Be careful.
  • It’s a little tricky to balance everything as you put the rack down on to the barbecue (because it’s hot) but persevere and get help!
  • Close the lid and cook for 40–45 minutes, then pierce the chicken between the leg and the body: the juices should have no trace of pink.
  • If it’s not finished, continue to cook.
  • Carefully take the chicken off the can, carve and serve.
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Course; Barbecue / Chicken / Poultry

Barbecued poussins with za’atar and roast pumpkin houmous

Barbecued poussins with za’atar and roast pumpkin houmous on a rustic wooden table

Barbecued poussins with za’atar and roast pumpkin houmous

You can buy za’atar – a Middle Eastern spice blend – but it’s easy to make your own (and cheap, too). Making it yourself also means you can vary it. This is a very basic za’atar, others are more complicated, but thyme, sumac and sesame seeds are essential. It makes more than you need, but keep it in an airtight container and sprinkle it on warm flatbread, or use it to marinate lamb kebabs. Pumpkin houmous isn’t authentic but it gives chickpea houmous a run for its money. I vary the ingredients, sometimes adding ground cumin or dried chilli (add those when you roast the pumpkin or when you purée it). What is really important is seasoning and adding the right amount of lemon juice, so use your taste buds.
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Ingredients

FOR THE ZA’ATAR

FOR THE POUSSINS

FOR THE HOUMOUS

Instructions

  • First of all make the za’atar.
  • Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/gas mark 2.
  • Strip the leaves from the thyme.
  • Put them in a small roasting tin and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
  • Put the dried leaves into a mortar and pound lightly.
  • Add the remaining ingredients.
  • Pound a little more, but not so much that you grind the sesame seeds, just to release the aromas.
  • Mix 4 tbsp of the za’atar with the lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and pepper.
  • Trim any raggedy bits of skin from the poussins.
  • Put them in a dish and cover them in the marinade.
  • Cover with cling film and put in the fridge for four hours or overnight.
  • Bring to room temperature before cooking.
  • Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.
  • Cut the pumpkin into chunks then remove the seeds and peel.
  • Put into a roasting tin, drizzle with the regular oil, season and roast for about 25 minutes, until completely tender.
  • Prepare a barbecue to the stage where the coals are hot but no longer flaming.
  • Lift the poussins out of the marinade and put on to the barbecue.
  • Cook for 10 minutes, then turn and cook for another 10 minutes.
  • Check to see if they are done and return the poussins if they need more cooking, changing their position on the barbecue.
  • It usually takes 25 minutes in all.
  • Quickly purée the pumpkin with the other ingredients for the houmous.
  • Sprinkle the poussins with more za’atar and serve with the houmous and some Greek yogurt.
  • You don’t need any starch, as the houmous provides that, but a green salad, tomato salad, or roast tomatoes are lovely on the side.
  • Provide lemon wedges as well, to squeeze on the poussins.
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Course; Barbecue / Chicken / Poultry