Recipes

Thyme-roasted chicken with breton onion sauce

Thyme-roasted chicken with breton onion sauce

This is really old-fashioned and a dream of a dish. I used to make sauce soubise (made from béchamel and puréed onions) from time to time for roast lamb, but never thought of putting an onion sauce with chicken. Then I read about Breton onion sauce (similar to sauce soubise) in one of my favourite cookbooks, Jenny Baker’s Cuisine Grandmère (it’s out of print but try to track down a copy, it’s a gem). She suggested serving it with roast chicken. My Breton sauce is based on her recipe. It’s basically a cream-enriched béchamel mixed with a soft, melting mass of cooked onions and a good slug of Calvados. It’s best to back-time the béchamel to be ready just when the chicken has rested. You can do the onion component in advance, but reheating béchamel is always a bit of a pain.
Couverts6
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • 1.8 kg 4lb chicken
  • 25 g scant 1oz unsalted butter
  • leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme
  • salt and pepper

FOR THE ONIONS

  • 30 g 1oz unsalted butter, slightly softened
  • 450 g 1lb onions, finely chopped

FOR THE SAUCE

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Start with the chicken.
  • Mash the butter with the thyme, salt and pepper.
  • Carefully loosen the skin over the breast (see technique for Roast chicken with mushrooms and sage butter under the skin).
  • Using your fingers, spread about half of the butter under the skin, without tearing it.
  • Now spread the remainder on the outside of the bird, season and put into a roasting tin.
  • Cook in the hot oven for 1 hour 15 minutes, basting every so often.
  • Now prepare the onions (you can do these ahead of time).
  • Melt the butter in a heavy-based pan and add the onions.
  • Turn them over to coat in the butter, add 2 tbsp of water and cover.
  • Cook over a very low heat until completely soft, being careful not to let them brown.
  • Keep an eye on them, adding a spoonful of water every so often.
  • They will sweat to a lovely sweet softness.
  • When the chicken is cooked allow it to rest, covered in foil, for 15 minutes.
  • To make the sauce put the milk, onion, parsley, peppercorns and bay leaf in a saucepan and slowly bring to just under the boil.
  • Take off the heat and leave for 20 minutes to infuse.
  • Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan, add the flour and stir over a medium-low heat for a minute.
  • Take off the heat.
  • Strain in the milk, a little at a time, stirring until smooth.
  • Season and add the nutmeg.
  • Return to the heat and stir until boiling.
  • Reduce the heat and simmer for three minutes.
  • Add the onions with their juices, the crème fraîche, mustard and Calvados and taste for seasoning.
  • Pour into a warm jug.
  • Serve the chicken, its juices and the sauce.
  • Simple accompaniments – French beans or Savoy cabbage, waxy potatoes – are best.
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Course; Chicken

Chicken with thyme and lemon and smashed garlic potatoes

Chicken with thyme and lemon and smashed garlic potatoes

Very simple but very pretty, especially if you can get your hands on thyme flowers. The chicken also works well with lavender. The potatoes are fab. I do them in all sorts of versions. You can daub the top of them with crème fraîche (wicked, but good) or add dried chilli flakes or herbs (not to serve with this chicken dish, but with others). It’s a ‘keeper’ recipe.
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Ingredients

FOR THE POTATOES

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • 1 small skin-on chicken jointed into 8, or a mixture of skin-on bone-in joints
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 8 sprigs of thyme and thyme flowers if possible
  • finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon plus the juice of 2

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
  • Boil the potatoes in water with the peeled, whole garlic cloves.
  • When the potatoes are just tender, drain them (discard the garlic), put the potatoes into an ovenproof dish and press the top of each so it is a little crushed, but stays in one piece (I use the end of a rolling pin, but a potato masher is good, too).
  • Add the grated garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and turn the potatoes over in all this.
  • Sprinkle with the thyme.
  • Put the chicken joints into an ovenproof dish that you can serve from; a cast-iron, enamel or copper dish would be good.
  • They should be able to lie snugly in a single layer.
  • Add the olive oil, salt and pepper and 6 sprigs of thyme (leave some sprigs whole, just use the leaves of others.
  • No need to be exacting about it).
  • Add the zest and juice of one lemon.
  • Throw the squeezed-out shells in too.
  • Toss everything around with your hands.
  • Remove some of the zest of the other lemon with a vegetable peeler and set it aside.
  • Leave all the chicken skin side up and put in the hot oven.
  • After 10 minutes’ cooking, put the potatoes into the oven.
  • They should be roasted for 30 minutes and you need to shake the dish every so often and turn the potatoes over.
  • After the chicken has been in the oven for 30 minutes, add the strips of lemon zest and toss them round in the fat.
  • Cook for a final 10 minutes.
  • Serve the chicken in the dish in which it has been cooked with the leaves from the extra sprigs of thyme and the thyme flowers over the top, with the potatoes.
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Course; Chicken

Chicken, spinach and cheese polpette

Chicken, spinach and cheese polpette

This is a really useful recipe. You can serve these little chicken meatballs with home-made tomato sauce (though leave out the cinnamon) and spaghetti, or with plain (unsauced) spaghetti moistened with olive oil, or in bowls of chicken broth (cook small pasta such as orzo, or long-grain rice, in the broth before adding the polpette). And of course you can just stuff them into wraps with lettuce, tomato and mayo, or serve them with some kind of dip. This mixture makes about 50 polpette and I reckon on serving each person eight if I serve them with pasta (they’re really not very big); more if I’m just serving them with a dip. In principle I don’t agree with the idea of ‘childrens’ food’, but it’s hard to stick to that if you end up with a picky eater in the family. I am always looking for dishes that my nine-year-old will enjoy. And these get the thumbs up. Grown-ups (thankfully) like them just as much.
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Ingredients

  • 500 g 1lb 2oz minced chicken
  • 50 g 1¾oz fresh white or brown breadcrumbs
  • 20 g ¾oz grated Parmesan
  • 60 g 2oz grated Gruyère
  • 2 –3 tbsp olive oil
  • ½ onion or 1 small onion, very finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves crushed
  • 200 g 7oz spinach
  • leaves from 3 sprigs of thyme
  • generous grating of nutmeg
  • finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
  • salt and pepper

Instructions

  • Put the minced chicken in a bowl with the breadcrumbs and the cheeses.
  • Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion over a medium to low heat until soft but not coloured.
  • Add the garlic and cook for another two minutes.
  • Leave to cool.
  • Put the spinach in a pan with a couple of tbsp of water and cover.
  • Set over a low heat and allow to wilt, turning the leaves over a couple of times.
  • It will take about four minutes.
  • Drain and leave to cool.
  • Add the cooled onion to the chicken with the thyme, nutmeg, lemon zest and plenty of salt and pepper.
  • Squeeze the excess water from the spinach and chop it finely.
  • Add to the rest of the ingredients and mix everything with your hands.
  • It’s really important that the mixture is well seasoned.
  • Wet your hands – it makes it easier to shape the polpette – and form the mixture into little balls, about the size of a walnut in its shell.
  • Put them on a tray or baking sheet as you prepare them.
  • If you have time, cover them and chill – it helps them stay firmer – but I often just cook them straight off.
  • Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan and cook the polpette in batches over a medium heat, so the outsides get a good colour, allowing each to form a crust before turning it over.
  • You need to cook and turn the polpette until brown and crusty all over – about three minutes for each batch – then reduce the heat and continue to cook, again turning from time to time, until the polpette are cooked through, roughly another seven minutes (cut into one to check how they’re doing; there should be no trace of pink).
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Course; Chicken

Chicken with pumpkin, cream and gruyère

Chicken with pumpkin, cream and gruyère

This dish is a duvet, a hug, a totally yielding mixture of soft pumpkin, chicken and melting cheese. And sometimes you need that. It is very rich; small portions are advisable.
Couverts6
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Ingredients

  • 1 kg 2lb 4oz pumpkin or butternut squash (unprepared weight)
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 8 skinless boneless chicken thighs or breasts
  • 400 ml 14fl oz double cream
  • 1 garlic clove crushed
  • 25 g scant 1oz grated Gruyère
  • 25 g scant 1oz grated Parmesan

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.
  • Peel and deseed the pumpkin and cut it into wedges.
  • Put the wedges into a roasting tin, brush with olive oil, season and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until completely tender (and even slightly caramelized).
  • Now put the squash into a gratin or other ovenproof dish, one that is big enough to accommodate the chicken too.
  • Meanwhile, cook the chicken.
  • Simply season it all over, heat 1½ tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the chicken on both sides until golden and cooked through, eight to 10 minutes.
  • Cut each piece into three.
  • Add the chicken to the pumpkin.
  • Heat the cream with the garlic until it’s boiling, take off the heat, season and pour over the chicken and pumpkin.
  • Sprinkle on both cheeses and bake for 20–25 minutes.
  • The dish should be bubbling and golden.
  • Serve.
  • You need something to cut the richness, so a salad of bitter leaves is good.
  • Children like it with pasta, but I prefer brown rice or another nutty whole grain.
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Course; Chicken / Sauce

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.
Couverts8
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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.
Couverts4
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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.
Couverts4
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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.
Couverts6
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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