Recipes

Smoked paprika roast chicken, potato wedges and saffron allioli

Smoked paprika roast chicken, potato wedges and saffron allioli

A lovely, golden dish. It’s only chicken and potatoes but the smoked paprika – the taste of Spain – and the saffron allioli takes it to a whole other level. You can make the allioli the day before you want to serve it, cover and keep it in the fridge. A few caperberries – either on each plate or in a small bowl on the table – add another Hispanic touch.
Couverts6
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN AND POTATOES

FOR THE ALLIOLI

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Mix the olive oil, salt and pepper and 3 tbsp of the paprika together.
  • Paint or spoon this on to the chicken.
  • Roast in the oven for 1 hour 50 minutes.
  • It is cooked when the juices which run out between the leg and body are clear, with no trace of pink.
  • Meanwhile, make the allioli.
  • Crush the garlic with a little sea salt in a large mortar and pestle, or a bowl.
  • Stir in the egg yolks.
  • Add the oil drop by drop, very slowly at first, beating with a wooden spoon or an electric hand mixer as you do so.
  • Only add more oil once the previous lot has been incorporated and the mixture has thickened.
  • When you’ve added all the oil, heat the saffron in the lemon juice and leave to cool.
  • Gradually add this to the allioli, taste and season with more salt, white pepper and any lemon (or vinegar) you think you need.
  • It’s better to taste as you go rather than sticking to specified amounts, as vinegars vary in strength.
  • Cover and keep in the fridge.
  • Cut the potatoes into wedges, about 3.
  • 5cm (1½in) at their widest, put them in a roasting tin, add a couple of tbsp of oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper and the remaining smoked paprika.
  • Turn everything over with your hands.
  • Put them in the oven to cook in the final 20 minutes of the chicken’s cooking time.
  • (That way they can cook while the chicken is resting.
  • ) Give them a shake halfway to move them around a bit.
  • When the chicken is cooked, cover it with foil.
  • Leave it to rest for 15 minutes while the wedges finish cooking, before serving with the potatoes and the allioli.
  • This dish can take the grand treatment: put the bird on a heated platter and pile the wedges around it.
  • Serve with the allioli and a green salad, or sautéed spinach with pine nuts and raisins.
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Course; Chicken / Vegetables

Royal chicken korma

Royal chicken korma

Once I had made chicken korma myself, I was never able to order it from a takeaway again. This is based on a recipe from my great friend Roopa Gulati and it’s simply stunning. Doubling the recipe – so it serves 12 generously – is easy, so you can really put on a feast. There are many variations on chicken korma, some include rose water and white poppy seeds, others coconut, but all are rich. I like this with a rice pilau with dried fruit. Wisps of edible gold or silver leaf added to the pilau is in keeping with the Moghul cooking style and will make your feast even more sumptuous. It’s a joy to put this on the table.
Couverts6
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Ingredients

  • 2 large onions finely sliced, plus 2 onions, finely chopped
  • vegetable oil to deep-fry
  • ½ tsp saffron strands
  • 25 g 1oz raw cashews, plus 1 tbsp roasted, unsalted cashews, to serve
  • 25 g 1oz blanched almonds
  • 4 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
  • ½ tsp cloves
  • 12 green cardamom pods bruised (not broken)
  • 5 black cardamom pods bruised (not broken)
  • 1 cinnamon stick halved
  • 800 g 1lb 12oz skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into big chunks
  • 4 cm 1½in root ginger, peeled and finely grated
  • 4 garlic cloves finely chopped
  • ½ tsp red Kashmiri chilli powder
  • 2 tsp toasted ground coriander seeds
  • ½ tsp ground white pepper
  • 50 g 1¾oz plain yogurt
  • 75 ml 2½fl oz double cream
  • good squeeze of lime juice
  • ½ tsp garam masala
  • 2 tbsp chopped coriander

Instructions

  • Sprinkle the sliced onions liberally with salt, put in a sieve or colander and set aside for 30 minutes.
  • Squeeze any excess liquid from the onions and pat them dry with kitchen paper.
  • Heat about 12.
  • 5cm (5in) of oil in a deep pan or a wok and deep-fry the salted onions in batches.
  • When they turn golden, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
  • Put the fried onions into a food processor with 75ml (2½fl oz) of hot water and process until you get a smooth paste.
  • Set aside.
  • Soak the saffron strands in 3 tbsp of warm water and set aside for 30 minutes until the liquid turns a deep auburn (you really do have to leave it this long, don’t rush or skip this step).
  • Prepare a nut paste: soak the raw cashews and the almonds in warm water for 15 minutes.
  • Put the nuts into a food processor with 50ml (2fl oz) of the soaking liquid and purée.
  • Now you can start making the main curry base.
  • Heat the ghee or clarified butter in a wok or heavy-based pan and cook the chopped onions for 10 minutes, until soft.
  • Stir in the cloves, both types of cardamom and the cinnamon.
  • Cook for a couple of minutes more.
  • Now add the chicken thighs to the pan followed by the browned onion paste, ground nuts, ginger, garlic, chilli powder and crushed coriander seeds and white pepper.
  • Season with salt.
  • Increase the heat a little and continue frying everything together for another 10 minutes.
  • Pour 150ml (5fl oz) of hot water on to the chicken and simmer gently until the thighs are tender; this takes about 15 minutes.
  • Stir in the saffron liquid, yogurt and cream and heat through but don’t boil.
  • Taste for seasoning, then add a squeeze of lime juice and sprinkle on the garam masala, toasted cashews and chopped coriander.
  • Serve with naan bread or rice and chutneys.
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Course; Chicken

Middle Eastern rose-scented poussins with sour cherries and yogurt

Middle Eastern rose-scented poussins with sour cherries and yogurt

It might seem odd to marinate anything in flower water, but it gives only a slight scent (and has strong spices to compete with). The roses bring a little romance (so it’s good for a Valentine’s dinner) but it’s definitely not a girly dish, there are plenty of robust flavours here.
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Ingredients

FOR THE MARINADE

FOR THE DRESSING

FOR THE YOGURT

  • 40 g 1½oz dried sour cherries
  • ½ cucumber
  • 350 g 12oz Greek yogurt
  • 1 garlic clove crushed
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 10 g ¼oz walnuts, roughly chopped
  • 1 tbsp chopped mint leaves plus more to serve
  • unsprayed rose petals to serve

Instructions

  • Mix together the ingredients for the marinade and lay the poussins in a broad shallow dish.
  • Pour the marinade on and turn the birds over in it.
  • Cover loosely with cling film and put in the fridge.
  • Marinate overnight if you have time, but just give it a couple of hours if that’s all you have.
  • Turn the birds over a few times while they are marinating.
  • To make the dressing, just whisk everything together.
  • Take the poussins out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to cook them.
  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Shake off the excess marinade, put in a roasting tin and roast the birds in the hot oven for 50 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, for the yogurt, soak the cherries in just-boiled water for 15 minutes so they plump up.
  • Peel the cucumber, halve it, scoop out the seeds with a spoon and discard.
  • Chop the cucumber flesh into small cubes and mix with the yogurt, garlic and half the extra virgin oil.
  • Put into a flat bowl.
  • Drain the sour cherries and sprinkle them across the top, then the walnuts too.
  • Drizzle with the rest of the extra virgin oil and scatter with the mint.
  • Serve the poussins with the dressing spooned over them and the yogurt on the side.
  • Scatter some more mint and the rose petals on top.
  • Bitter leaves and bulgar wheat are good on the side.
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Course; Chicken / Fruit

Mar i muntanya

Mar i muntanya

This is Catalan, a ‘surf ‘n turf’ dish, though their name for it translates, rather more poetically, as ‘sea and mountain’. You should, ideally, use langoustines or Dublin Bay prawns. If you want to do that, buy about 24, leave them in their shells and add them three minutes before the end of cooking. I usually find that they’re either very expensive or not very good quality (unless you are making this in Spain or in Ireland), so fall back on organically farmed king prawns. You start, as you do in Catalan cooking, with a sofregit, a mix of slow-cooked onions and tomatoes, and the dish is eventually thickened – and its flavour deepened – with a classic mixture of pounded bread, nuts, garlic and herbs called a picada (it’s used elsewhere in the book, though not as a thickener). This isn’t at all difficult or time-consuming to make, yet it makes its way into the Feast chapter because it is distinctive and deserves to be served with some fanfare… and some great wine.
Couverts6
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • 1½ tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large chicken jointed into 8, or 8 skin-on bone-in thighs and drumsticks
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 large onions finely chopped
  • 5 really well-flavoured tomatoes peeled, deseeded and chopped
  • 500 ml 18fl oz dry white wine (or a mixture of white wine and fino sherry)
  • 1½ tbsp anisette or pernod
  • 400 g 14oz organic king prawns
  • ¼ tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

FOR THE PICADA

Instructions

  • FOR THE CHICKEN
  • 1½ tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large chicken, jointed into 8, or 8 skin-on bone-in thighs and drumsticks
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 large onions, finely chopped
  • 5 really well-flavoured tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped
  • 500ml (18fl oz) dry white wine (or a mixture of white wine and fino sherry)
  • 1½ tbsp anisette or pernod
  • 400g (14oz) organic king prawns
  • ¼ tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • FOR THE PICADA
  • 25g (scant 1oz) country bread, crusts removed
  • ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 20 blanched almonds, toasted
  • 3 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
  • leaves from 5 sprigs of parsley

Notes & Wine Advice

Heat the regular oil in a broad, shallow casserole and brown the chicken joints until they are golden all over. Season as you are cooking them. Remove them as they’re ready and set aside.
Pour off all but 1½ tbsp of the oil from the pan. You’re now going to make the sofregit, the onion and tomato base. Heat the oil in the pan, add the onions and cook them slowly until they are soft and golden. It will take about 15 minutes and you might need to add a splash of water to keep the onions moist. Add the tomatoes, season and continue to cook, again slowly, until these are completely soft, ‘jammy’ and intensely flavoured. A lot of the liquid will evaporate during this time. It will probably take about another 15 minutes.
Add the wine and return the chicken, skin side up, with any of the juices that have run out of it. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer and cook, uncovered, for 40 minutes. Move the chicken round from time to time.
Make the picada. Fry the bread on both sides in the virgin oil over a high heat until crisp (it shouldn’t soak up the oil or remain soggy). Put into a mortar with the almonds, garlic and parsley and pound to a rough paste, using a little of the chicken broth to moisten it. About 10 minutes before the end of cooking, stir in the picada and the anisette. Taste for seasoning.
Finally, two minutes before the end of cooking, add the prawns, gently stirring them in. They will turn pink and cook through. Taste again for seasoning and adjust if needed. I usually throw more parsley over the top before serving.
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Course; Chicken
Cuisine; European / Spain

Little (ish) bollito misto

Little (ish) bollito misto

One of the classics of Italian food, this dishfrom Piedmont is a wonderful old-fashioned feast. A proper big bollito feedsabout 18 and includes tongue and sometimes veal. It seems a pity only to cookit when you have hordes to feed, so this is a reduced version. Buy good brisketfrom an excellent butcher – one from the supermarket won’t do – and cook itreally gently, or the meat will be tough. You can find cotechino and mostarda di frutta in Italian delis or online.
Couverts10
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Ingredients

FOR THE BOLLITO MISTO

FOR THE SALSA VERDE

Instructions

  • Put the beef bones, carrots, celery, leeks, onion, parsley stalks and peppercorns into a very large saucepan (it needs to hold the beef and the chicken at the same time).
  • Add cold water to cover and bring to the boil.
  • Skim the surface, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 1½ hours.
  • Add the brisket, return to just under the boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer.
  • Skim the surface and add salt.
  • Cover and cook very, very gently for 1 hour 15 minutes.
  • Add the chicken and cook for another 45 minutes.
  • The chicken should be cooked through (the juices that run from between the leg and the body should be clear, with no trace of pink).
  • Make sure the cooking is gentle the whole time.
  • To make the salsa verde, chop the herbs, then pound in a mortar and pestle with the other ingredients, gradually adding the oil (you can make this in the food processor, but it is nicer made by hand: it has a better, rougher texture).
  • Some cooks add the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, to enrich and soften the salsa.
  • Heat the cotechino in a saucepan of boiling water in the pouch in which it came (it’s already cooked; you just need to heat it through, then remove it from its pouch).
  • Keep the beef and chicken in the pot covered with the cooking liquid until you want to serve, then slice the beef, cotechino and chicken, removing the chicken skin.
  • Either serve the meats in soup plates with broth spooned over (that’s what I do) or take them to the table on a platter and bring the broth in a tureen.
  • The important thing is not to have the meats out of the broth for longer than necessary, as they must stay moist.
  • Serve with the salsa verde and mostarda di frutta – a sweet and hot Italian condiment – on the side, and whole or halved carrots, quartered onions and celery sticks (simmered separately in stock).
  • Something starchy – white beans or Umbrian lentils – is usually served as well.
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Course; Chicken
Cuisine; European / Italian

Greek chicken with greens, capers and skordalia

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

Jura chicken with vin jaune and morels

Jura chicken with vin jaune and morels

The reason this gets a place in the feasting chapter is that it’s expensive to make and the ingredients are hard to find. It takes effort, but it’s one of the most glorious French dishes I know and well worth it for a special meal. Morels are in season in the spring. If you can’t get hold of fresh morels, or prefer not to splash out, dried wild morels are fine (more than fine, in fact!) Buy the best chicken you can afford. In the Jura region of France they produce a strange dry white wine called vin jaune. It’s difficult to find here, but dry sherry is a good substitute.
Couverts6
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Ingredients

  • 300 g 10½oz fresh morel mushrooms (or a mixture of morels and cultivated mushrooms), or 40g (1½oz) dried morel mushrooms
  • 75 g 2¾oz unsalted butter
  • 1.8 kg 4lb skin-on chicken, jointed into 8
  • salt and pepper
  • 300 ml ½ pint vin jaune or dry sherry
  • 200 ml 7fl oz double cream
  • juice of ½ lemon or to taste (optional)
  • chopped chervil leaves if you can find it to serve, or finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

Instructions

  • If you are using fresh mushrooms, gently clean them (if you have a little brush that’s great, otherwise go carefully with kitchen paper).
  • If you are using dried mushrooms, put them in a bowl and add enough just-boiled water to cover.
  • Leave these to soak for 30 minutes.
  • Heat half the butter in a sauté pan and, working in batches, brown the chicken over a medium heat.
  • Be careful not to burn the fat.
  • Season.
  • Remove the chicken to a dish as each piece is ready and set aside while you work on the others.
  • Add the remaining butter to the pan with the mushrooms (drain if you’re using dried mushrooms and keep the soaking liquor) and sauté briskly for five minutes.
  • Add the wine, stirring to dislodge all the lovely juices that have stuck to the pan and bring to the boil.
  • If you have soaking liquor from dried mushrooms, add that too, avoiding any gritty bits at the bottom of the bowl.
  • Return the chicken to the pan, reduce the heat to low, cover and cook gently for about 40 minutes, or until cooked through.
  • Take out the chicken pieces and put them in a dish in a low oven while you make the sauce.
  • Skim excess fat from the top of the cooking liquor.
  • Bring the cooking liquor to the boil and reduce by about one-quarter.
  • Add the cream and return to the boil.
  • Cook until you have a sauce that will just coat the back of a spoon, not too thick and not too thin.
  • Taste for seasoning.
  • Sometimes the elements of a dish can be ‘lifted’ by a squeeze of lemon juice so add this if you think it needs it; the lemon will also thicken the sauce slightly.
  • Taste again for seasoning.
  • Return the chicken to the pan and heat it through.
  • Scatter the chervil or parsley on top and serve from the sauté pan.
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Course; Chicken

Crusted chicken and chorizo paella

Crusted chicken and chorizo paella

I’ve made lots of paellas in my time, they’re very low maintenance (as you actually must leave them to cook, not stir them) and they’re good for a crowd. But I only recently made this one with an egg crust. Why did I wait so long? It adds another layer of texture and flavour and softens and enriches the whole dish. Just make sure to get a nice soft set.
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Ingredients

  • 1 litre 1¾ pints chicken stock
  • ¼ tsp saffron strands
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 8 skin-on bone-in chicken thighs
  • 250 g 9oz spicy sausages, cut into chunks
  • 150 g 5½oz chorizo sausage, cut into chunks
  • 1 large onion roughly chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves crushed
  • 400 g 14oz tomatoes, chopped
  • 3 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • 375 g 13oz Spanish paella rice
  • 325 g jar of roasted peppers or 4 home-roasted peppers, drained and sliced
  • 5 medium eggs
  • 1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • finely grated zest of ½ unwaxed lemon
  • generous grating of nutmeg
  • lemon wedges to serve

Instructions

  • Bring the stock to the boil in a medium saucepan.
  • Stir in the saffron, remove the pan from the heat and set aside.
  • Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a paella pan, large deep frying pan or broad shallow casserole (I use a cast-iron one for this) that is at least 30cm (12in) in diameter.
  • Season the chicken thighs and brown them on both sides.
  • (You want to colour the chicken well, not cook it through.
  • ) Take the chicken out of the pan and set it aside.
  • Add the sausages and chorizo to the pan and brown all over, then set aside with the chicken.
  • Pour off all but 1½ tbsp of fat from the pan.
  • Add the onion and cook until it is soft and golden, about four minutes, then add the garlic and cook for another two minutes.
  • Add the tomatoes and cook for another four minutes.
  • Stir in the paprika and chilli and cook for a minute, stirring, then add the chicken stock.
  • Return the chicken, sausages and chorizo, bring to a simmer and cook over a gentle heat for 10 minutes.
  • Pour the rice all round the chicken and season everything really well.
  • Cook for 25 minutes.
  • You don’t need to stir the rice as it cooks, in fact you shouldn’t.
  • Ten minutes before the end of cooking time add the peppers, tucking them in among the meat and rice.
  • When the cooking time is up, all the stock should have been absorbed.
  • Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7 or preheat the grill to its highest setting to coincide with the end of the cooking time.
  • Meanwhile, lightly beat the eggs in a bowl with some salt, pepper, the parsley, lemon zest and nutmeg.
  • Pour this over the top of the paella, tilting the pan from side to side to ensure an even layer of egg (if it seeps into the paella rather than making a crust on top it just produces a heavy dish).
  • Now either put the dish in the hot oven or under the hot grill for five minutes.
  • The top should be set and crusty.
  • Serve with lemon wedges.
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Course; Chicken

Cider-brined chicken with prunes, chestnuts and baby onions

Cider-brined chicken with prunes, chestnuts and baby onions

An excellent Christmas option if you don’t want to cook a turkey. It’s as bronze as a footballer’s WAG (the brine, because it contains sugar, means that the skin becomes a good deep colour) and looks glorious. Some farmers produce really big chickens for Christmas and Easter: Fosse Meadows have them, while SJ Fredericks do Label Anglais chickens that weigh as much as 3.5kg (7lb 10oz) especially for these times of year, so you could opt for a really big chicken instead of a turkey. Brining may seem like a hassle, but I’m a bit of a convert. It really does season the meat right through to the bone – providing a conduit for all manner of flavours, too – and ensures moistness. The only troublesome thing is finding a cold place where you can brine your chook for 24 hours. It usually means taking the veg drawer out of the fridge, but you may have a very cold room in the house. It’s important that you don’t brine the chicken for any longer than suggested, or it will be too salty. Be careful with the prune dish. The prunes must be soft and tender, but not collapsing into a chutney. You need to use heat judiciously.
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Ingredients

FOR THE BRINE

TO SOAK THE PRUNES

  • 30 plump Agen prunes
  • 200 ml 7fl oz apple brandy
  • ½ tbsp granulated sugar

TO STUFF THE CHICKEN AND FOR THE GRAVY

  • handful of parsley stalks
  • 1 orange halved
  • 1 onion halved
  • 150 ml 5fl oz dry cider
  • 600 ml 1 pint well-flavoured chicken stock

TO FINISH THE PRUNES

  • 15 g ½oz unsalted butter
  • 20 baby onions peeled
  • 100 ml 3½fl oz apple brandy
  • 200 ml 7fl oz chicken stock
  • 2 sprigs of thyme
  • 20 cooked chestnuts
  • 1 tsp sherry vinegar

Instructions

  • To make the brine, put all the ingredients into a very large saucepan with 3 litres (5¼ pints) of water.
  • Gently heat, stirring to help the salt and sugar dissolve, until boiling.
  • Leave to cool completely.
  • Put this into a scrupulously clean bucket or other large plastic container.
  • (Remember the level of the liquid will rise after you put in the chicken, so make sure there’s enough room.
  • ) Put in the chicken and weigh it down with a plate (you may need something else too, a bottle of vodka does the trick).
  • Leave somewhere cold for 24 hours.
  • Unless there’s snow on the ground – that’s when one of the rooms in my house gets very cold – I take the veg drawers out of the fridge and put it there.
  • Start the prunes the day before, too, if possible.
  • Put them into a saucepan with 200ml (7fl oz) of the apple brandy, the sugar and 100ml (3½fl oz) of water.
  • Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the prunes are soft and plump and most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 15 minutes.
  • This is best done the day before so they have time to plump up, but you can do it early in the day on which you want to serve the chicken.
  • After 24 hours, take the chicken out of the brine and dry it thoroughly with kitchen paper.
  • Leave it to dry in the fridge – uncovered – for a couple of hours, then bring it to room temperature.
  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Put the chicken into a roasting tin and put the parsley stalks, orange and onion inside the cavity.
  • Roast for 1 hour 40 minutes, basting every so often.
  • (Because of the sugar in the brine the skin can darken quite quickly.
  • If it gets too dark, cover the chicken with foil.
  • )
  • The chicken is ready when the juices that run out from between the leg and the body are clear, with no trace of pink.
  • Pour the juices off into a heatproof glass jug and put the bird on to a heated platter.
  • Cover with a double layer of foil and let the chicken rest for 15 minutes.
  • Skim the fat from the chicken roasting juices.
  • Make a ‘gravy’ by deglazing the roasting tin with the cider: add the cider and bring to the boil while stirring with a wooden spoon to dislodge all the bits stuck to the bottom of the tin.
  • Reduce the alcohol by half, add the chicken stock and the skimmed chicken juices and boil until you have a light syrup.
  • While all this is going on, finish the prunes.
  • Heat most of the butter in a frying pan and sauté the onions until golden all over, about 10 minutes.
  • Be careful not to burn the fat.
  • Add the apple brandy and boil until only about 4 tbsp of liquid remains.
  • Add the chicken stock and thyme to the onions, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.
  • Cook, covered, for about 10 minutes, then remove the lid and continue to cook until the onions are tender and the liquid has really reduced.
  • Remove the thyme.
  • Melt the last bit of butter in another frying pan and quickly sauté the chestnuts until they are glossy.
  • Add these and the onions to the prunes and stir in the sherry vinegar.
  • Heat everything through, but don’t boil the mixture or the prunes will start to fall apart; you don’t want a chutney.
  • Taste for seasoning.
  • There should be a touch of sweet-savoury going on but the dish shouldn’t be too sweet.
  • Either serve the prune, onions and chestnuts in a bowl, or spoon them round the bird on its platter.
  • Offer the reduced cooking juices in a warmed jug.
  • Of course, it goes with all the usual Christmas razzamatazz of side dishes.
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Course; Chicken

Chicken, bacon and potato salad with buttermilk and herb dressing

Chicken, bacon and potato salad with buttermilk and herb dressing

An easy American-style salad (they do love a buttermilk dressing). You can add sliced avocado and halved cherry tomatoes if you want and I sometimes add chopped cornichons to the dressing.
Couverts6
Deel op Facebook Print Recipe

Ingredients

FOR THE DRESSING

FOR THE SALAD

  • 500 g 1lb 2oz baby waxy potatoes
  • 10 g ¼oz unsalted butter
  • 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
  • 3½ tbsp olive oil
  • 200 g 7oz green beans, topped
  • 9 thick rashers of good-quality streaky bacon smoked or unsmoked
  • 300 g 10½oz cos lettuce, leaves separated and torn

Instructions

  • For the dressing, mix everything together, season well and put it in the fridge until you need it.
  • Try to cook everything else so that all the ingredients are still warm at the same time.
  • Boil the potatoes until tender, drain, return to the pan, add the butter, season and cover until needed.
  • If the chicken breasts are particularly thick, cut them in half horizontally.
  • Using 2 tbsp of the oil, brush them on each side and season.
  • Heat a griddle pan until hot and cook the chicken for about three minutes, turning once (and moving the chicken round the griddle so that no pieces are cooking in the cooler patches).
  • Season.
  • Reduce the heat and cook for another two minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through (but not overcooked, it should still be moist).
  • Steam the beans over boiling water until al dente and fry the bacon in the remaining oil until just crisp, then cut each rasher in half.
  • Cut the chicken breasts – at an angle – into broad slices.
  • Halve the potatoes and gently toss them, the lettuce and the beans together with a little of the buttermilk dressing, then put the chicken and bacon on top and drizzle over the rest of the dressing.
  • Serve immediately.
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Course; Chicken
Cuisine; American