Recipes

Chicken messina

Chicken messina

A chicken version of the classic Italian veal dish vitello tonnato. You can poach a whole chicken for this instead of breasts, but poaching breasts means the dish is neat and easy to serve. You absolutely must get good canned tuna for it (such as Ortiz). It’s a great, easy summer dish and not that well known.
Couverts4
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Equipment

  • Saucepan

Ingredients

  • TO POACH THE CHICKEN
  • ½ onion
  • 1 celery stick including the leaves
  • small handful of sprigs of parsley
  • 6 black peppercorns
  • 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts about 200g (7oz) each
  • FOR THE SAUCE
  • 125 g 4½oz mayonnaise, bought or home-made
  • 4 tbsp single cream plus more if needed
  • 90 g 3¼oz canned tuna, drained of oil and flaked
  • 5 canned anchovy fillets drained of oil and chopped
  • 1 tbsp capers rinsed of salt or brine
  • finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
  • salt and pepper
  • FO SERVE
  • 1½ tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • lemon wedges

Instructions

  • Fill a wide saucepan or sauté pan with water.
  • Add the onion, celery, sprigs of parsley and peppercorns and bring to the boil.
  • Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
  • Add the chicken, making sure that the poaching liquid covers it.
  • Reduce the heat and poach very gently for eight minutes.
  • Take the pan off the heat, cover and leave to stand for 20 minutes.
  • To test whether the chicken is fully cooked, remove one of the breasts and slice it through the middle, cutting it at an angle.
  • It should be firm but moist with no trace of pink.
  • Lift the chicken breasts out of the liquid and put them into a shallow dish.
  • Spoon some of the poaching liquid over them to keep them moist and cover.
  • For sauce, mix all the ingredients except the salt and pepper.
  • Taste, then season (the anchovies and capers make it salty).
  • It should be spoonable not stiff, so you may need more cream.
  • Either serve the chicken on separate plates, or on one platter.
  • Slice the chicken breasts across and spoon some tuna sauce on top.
  • Sprinkle with chopped parsley and put lemon wedges alongside.
  • Serve with a lightly dressed watercress and black olive salad (make sure to get good wrinkly olives; you don’t need to stone them) and Italian bread.
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Course; Chicken

Balinese chicken, bean and coconut salad

Balinese chicken, bean and coconut salad

Balinese chicken, bean and coconut salad

The best chicken salads come from the East – Bali, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma – and I can’t get enough of them: they just grab your taste buds and don’t let go. You can now buy fresh coconut in small packets (so no more buying a whole beast and taking a hammer to it). I know it’s a pain to open a whole can of coconut cream to use just a few tablespoons for the dressing, but there are plenty of other dishes in the book that call for coconut cream, so there should be no shortage of ways to use it up.
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Ingredients

FOR THE SALAD

FOR THE DRESSING

Instructions

  • Put the chicken into a dish with the lime zest and juice, the crushed garlic and some pepper.
  • Cover and put in the fridge while you make the rest of the dish.
  • Bring it to room temperature before cooking.
  • Shave the cucumber skin so that you end up with it in stripes (it doesn’t have to be neat).
  • Halve the cucumber lengthways and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon (discard them).
  • Slice the cucumber as thick as a 50p coin and put into a serving bowl.
  • Steam or boil the green beans until only just tender (they should be slightly less cooked than you would serve them as a side dish).
  • Rinse in cold water to stop them cooking further.
  • Carefully pat dry with a tea towel.
  • Add to the bowl with the beansprouts, herbs, coconut, chillies and lime leaves.
  • Peel the shallots, halve them and cut them into moon-shaped wedges.
  • Heat half the oil in a frying pan and cook until crispy and golden.
  • Scoop out on to kitchen paper with a slotted spoon.
  • Add the sliced garlic to the pan and cook until pale gold.
  • Be careful not to burn it; that happens very quickly.
  • Scoop that out, too, on to kitchen paper with a slotted spoon.
  • Add the shallots and garlic to the bowl.
  • Make the dressing by mixing the caster sugar with the lime juice and fish sauce.
  • Stir vigorously to help the sugar dissolve.
  • Add the oil and coconut cream.
  • Heat a griddle pan until really hot.
  • Take the chicken out of its marinade and brush on both sides with the remaining oil.
  • Season and cook the chicken on the griddle, starting on a high heat to get a good colour on both sides, then reducing the heat and cooking until they are done.
  • Slice into strips.
  • Toss the chicken into the salad bowl with the dressing and serve.
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Course; Chicken
Cuisine; Indonesia

Salad of chicken, cherries and watercress with creamy tarragon dressing

Salad of chicken, cherries and watercress with creamy tarragon dressing

A gloriously summery, elegant salad. You can make this with cold, leftover roast chicken if you prefer – it does mean it’s quicker to put together – but it’s worth poaching breasts for it, too. Tear the cherries when you pit them rather than cutting them, as the raw edges look better.
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Ingredients

FOR THE SALAD

  • 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
  • 400 ml 14fl oz chicken stock
  • 500 g 1lb 2oz ripe cherries, pitted
  • 200 g 7oz watercress
  • 50 g 1¾oz shelled pistachios, very roughly chopped

FOR THE DRESSING

Instructions

  • Put the chicken into a saucepan (in which it can lie in a single layer) and cover with the stock.
  • Heat until it just comes to the boil, then reduce the heat until the stock is gently simmering.
  • Allow the chicken to poach in this until it is cooked through, about 12 minutes.
  • (You can check that the chicken is cooked by piercing it with the tip of a very sharp knife, the juices should run clear, with no trace of pink.
  • ) Leave the chicken to cool; it stays nice and moist if it sits in its cooking liquor.
  • (The stock isn’t needed for this recipe, but keep it for something else.
  • )
  • To make the dressing, mix the vinegar, mustard and salt and pepper in a cup or small bowl.
  • Whisk in the oil, 1½ tbsp of water and the cream.
  • Add the tarragon and sugar, then mix and taste.
  • You may want to adjust the seasoning or the sweetness.
  • The consistency should be that of single cream.
  • This dressing improves while it sits (the tarragon flavour gets stronger) so cover and leave it to sit for 30 minutes or so.
  • Drain the chicken and cut it into neat slices – or tear it, if you prefer – and gently toss with the cherries, watercress, pistachios and dressing.
  • Serve straight away.
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Course; Fruit / Salad

Roast chicken and pumpkin, black lentils and hazelnut picada

Roast chicken and pumpkin, black lentils and hazelnut picada

Great colours: orange pumpkin, black lentils, tawny hazelnuts, golden chicken skin. Picada is a Spanish mixture – usually of breadcrumbs, nuts, garlic, herbs and a little liquid – added to a dish towards the end of cooking to thicken it. But lately picadas have also been used as a finely chopped mixture of ingredients thrown over a dish at the end to heighten and freshen flavours.
Couverts6
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

FOR THE PICADA

  • 100 ml 3½fl oz olive oil
  • 30 g 1oz chewy peasant-style bread, sliced 1cm (½in) thick
  • 40 g 1½oz skin-on hazelnuts
  • zest from ½ orange removed with a zester, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
  • 1 tbsp amontillado sherry

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Put the chicken into a roasting tin and season it inside and out.
  • Drizzle with 2 tbsp of the regular oil.
  • Now pour on 4 tbsp of the sherry, both inside and over the top, too.
  • Roast for 1 hour 20 minutes, basting.
  • Put the squash into a roasting tin.
  • Add the rest of the regular oil and season, then turn it over.
  • Drizzle with 2 tbsp of the sherry.
  • Put into the oven after the chicken has been in for 55 minutes (the squash needs to cook for 40 minutes).
  • Allow the chicken to rest for 15 minutes while the pumpkin finishes cooking; it should be tender and caramelized at the edges.
  • Meanwhile, put the lentils in a pan with the onion, celery, garlic, bay and thyme and cover with water.
  • Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15–30 minutes, until tender.
  • Keep an eye on them as you do not want mush!
  • Drain and remove the onion, celery, garlic and herbs (if you can find the garlic).
  • Stir in the virgin oil and lemon juice.
  • Season well.
  • Cover and keep warm.
  • (Lentils are fine lukewarm in this dish.
  • )
  • To make the picada, pour the oil into a small frying pan and set over a medium-low heat.
  • Dip a piece of bread in the oil; if it sizzles a bit, reduce the heat slightly and add the bread in a single layer.
  • Fry, turning, until it is a pale caramel colour on both sides.
  • Spread out on kitchen paper and leave to cool.
  • Toast the nuts in a dry frying pan, stirring, until they give off a nutty smell.
  • Rub in a tea towel while warm to remove skins, then roughly chop.
  • Break the bread into chunks, put in a bag and crush to coarse crumbs with a rolling pin.
  • Finely chop the rest of the ingredients and mix with the vinegar and sherry.
  • Put the lentils and pumpkin on a large platter with the chicken.
  • Drizzle the chicken with the remaining 2 tbsp of sherry, scatter on the picada and serve.
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Course; Chicken

Persian chicken with pistachios and mint

Persian chicken with pistachios and mint

I read about a khoresh in Najmieh Batmanglij’s wonderful book Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies. It was mostly made from pistachios – a whole 450g (1lb) of them – with the same amount of chicken, no vegetables and a pretty hefty swig of rose water. This is based on that (Batmanglij’s recipe also includes verjuice and saffron) but I’ve messed around with the dish. It uses ingredients I love (and that are common in Moroccan cookery, too), such as saffron and flower water, producing a dish that is scented and unusual to European and American taste buds. I have also made this with dill instead of mint and that works very well – it’s different, but just as good – while cooked broad beans (whose skins you’ve slipped off) are a lovely addition, too.
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Ingredients

  • 900 g 2lb skinless boneless chicken thighs
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 onions finely sliced
  • ¾ tsp turmeric
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • 250 ml 9fl oz verjuice
  • 250 ml 9fl oz chicken stock
  • salt
  • good pinch of saffron strands
  • ¼ –½ tsp rose water be careful as you are adding this
  • 250 g 9oz spinach, washed, coarse stalks removed, leaves torn
  • about 40 mint leaves torn
  • 50 g 1¾oz pistachios, roughly chopped
  • rose petals to serve (optional)

Instructions

  • Cut the thighs in half, so that you are left with two pieces that are rough rectangles.
  • Heat the oil in a sauté pan and fry the chicken in batches so it takes a good golden colour on both sides.
  • You don’t want to cook the chicken through, just colour it.
  • As the chicken is ready, remove it to a dish.
  • When all the chicken is done, add the onions to the pan and fry over a medium-low heat until they are golden and starting to soften.
  • Add the turmeric and pepper and cook for another minute, then pour in the verjuice and stock.
  • Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer and return the chicken – and any juices that have run out of it – to the pan.
  • Season with salt, cover and cook for 25 minutes, removing the lid for the final 10 minutes.
  • Add the saffron, stir it round in the juices to help it dissolve and add the rose water (you don’t want to overdo this and different brands have varying strengths, so add carefully and taste as you do so).
  • Add the spinach gradually, adding each amount when the rest has wilted.
  • Stir in the mint, taste to check for seasoning, then add the pistachios and rose petals (if using).
  • Serve with rice.
  • I also like a bowl of yogurt with some crushed garlic and 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil stirred into it.
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Course; Nuts

Roast chicken with mushroom and sage butter under the skin

Roast chicken with mushroom and sage butter under the skin

Stuffing a chicken that is to be roasted with butter, just under the skin, is one of the easiest ways you can give it a bit of va va voom and ensure a moist bird, too. The key thing is to lift the skin on the breast very carefully, you mustn’t tear it or the butter just runs out.
Couverts4
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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Pour some boiling water over the wild mushrooms and leave to soak for 30 minutes.
  • Drain (you can keep the soaking liquid for a mushroom soup or risotto) and chop the mushrooms.
  • Melt 15g (½oz) of the butter in a frying pan and sauté the fresh mushrooms until they are golden brown and quite dry: mushrooms throw moisture out as they cook and you need this to evaporate.
  • Add the wild mushrooms, stir around and cook for another couple of minutes.
  • Season with salt and pepper.
  • Scrape the mushrooms into a dish and leave to cool completely.
  • Mix the shallots and garlic in with the mushrooms, add a squeeze of lemon juice and the sage leaves.
  • Now add the remaining butter and mash everything together.
  • Put the butter mixture into the fridge to firm up.
  • When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Put the chicken into a small roasting tin or ovenproof dish.
  • Loosen the skin of the chicken, starting with the skin on the breast: carefully lift the skin and put your fingers in between the skin and the flesh, working your way down over the skin on the legs, too.
  • You must be careful not to tear the skin.
  • Now push the cold mushroom butter under the skin, spreading it down over the legs.
  • Press the top of the chicken skin once you’ve used up all the butter, to make sure it is fairly evenly distributed.
  • Season the bird with salt and pepper.
  • Put the chicken into the hot oven and cook for one hour, basting every so often.
  • Rest for 10 minutes under a double layer of foil.
  • I love this with pumpkin purée – you can fry some more sage leaves and put them on top of the purée – and tagliatelle or orzo, or a brown and wild rice pilaf.
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Course; Chicken

Poulet au vinaigre

Poulet au vinaigre

An old-fashioned classic, this is a lovely main course for a French bistro-style meal. Just make sure – since this requires some last-minute attention – that you have an easy starter and pudding to go either side of it. In fact one of those ‘eat-while-you-stand-around’ starters (offer saucisson, croûtes with pâté, hard-boiled quail’s eggs and tapenade, that kind of thing) is a good idea, so you cook the chicken while you all graze.
Couverts6
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Ingredients

  • 30 g 1oz unsalted butter, plus 50g (1¾oz) more cold butter, cut into little cubes
  • 12 skin-on bone-in chicken joints
  • 3 shallots finely chopped
  • 6 large garlic cloves unpeeled
  • 6 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 325 ml 11fl oz dry white wine
  • 150 ml 5fl oz chicken stock
  • 3 tbsp brandy
  • 3 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1½ tsp tomato purée
  • 100 ml 3½fl oz double cream
  • 3 large plum tomatoes skinned and deseeded, flesh cut into strips

Instructions

  • Melt the 30g (1oz) of butter in a sauté pan and brown the chicken on both sides, skin side first.
  • Add the shallots, the garlic and 2 tbsp of water to the pan and cover.
  • Reduce the heat to low and cook gently for 30–40 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through but tender.
  • Take the chicken out but keep it warm (in a low oven, covered).
  • Pour all the fat out of the pan, but don’t wash it.
  • Add the vinegar to the pan, stirring well to dislodge all the sediment that is stuck.
  • Boil quickly until you have about 2 tbsp of liquid left, then stir in the wine, stock, brandy, mustard and tomato purée and mix well.
  • Boil this mixture until you have a sauce consistency.
  • Press through a sieve into a clean saucepan, pushing the garlic cloves through as well.
  • Add the cream and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and add the tomatoes.
  • Gently heat through, then take the pan off the heat and gradually whisk in the 50g (1¾oz) of cold butter cubes.
  • The sauce should be glossy.
  • Taste it for tartness; it should be slightly tart but smooth and rounded.
  • Check for seasoning, too.
  • Pour it over the warm chicken and serve immediately.
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Course; Chicken

Chicken breasts with wild mushroom sauce and puy lentils

Chicken breasts with wild mushroom sauce and puy lentils

For years this was my ‘posh dinner party’ number. People used to want a sauce and a bit of cream. Times have changed, but this is still a lovely dish. You can make the sauce and lentils ahead of time and reheat them, which makes it convenient, too.
Couverts6
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Ingredients

FOR THE SAUCE

  • 25 g scant 1oz dried wild mushrooms
  • 15 g ½oz unsalted butter
  • 100 g 3½oz mushrooms, roughly chopped
  • 350 ml 12fl oz well-flavoured chicken stock
  • 125 ml 4fl oz double cream
  • salt and pepper

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • 6 skin-on boneless chicken breasts the best you can afford, each 150g (5½oz)
  • 20 g ¾oz unsalted butter
  • a splash of groundnut or rapeseed oil

FOR THE LENTILS

Instructions

  • Start with the sauce, which you can make in advance if you want and reheat at the last minute.
  • Pour 75ml (2½fl oz) of boiling water over the dried mushrooms and leave to soak for 15 minutes.
  • Melt the butter and sauté the other mushrooms until well coloured.
  • Drain the wild mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquor, and chop any that are large.
  • Add to the mushrooms in the pan and cook for another minute.
  • Pour on the stock and soaking liquor and cook until the liquid has reduced by two-thirds.
  • Add the cream and simmer until the sauce coats the back of a spoon.
  • Taste and season, you shouldn’t need any salt because of the reduced chicken stock.
  • Allow the chicken breasts to come to room temperature.
  • For the lentils, heat the regular oil in a heavy-based pan and gently sauté the onion, carrot and celery for 10 minutes.
  • Add the lentils, stock and bay leaf and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, covered, for 20–25 minutes, or until the lentils are cooked but still have a little bite.
  • (Keep an eye on them as they turn mushy very quickly.
  • ) By the end of the cooking time the stock should have been absorbed (you may need a little more stock or water during cooking).
  • Gently stir in the vinegar, virgin oil and parsley, check for seasoning and cover to keep warm.
  • Heat the butter and oil for the chicken in a large frying pan.
  • Season the chicken and put it in the pan, skin side down.
  • Cook for two minutes on each side over a medium heat, then reduce the heat and cook for six or so minutes, turning, until cooked through but still moist.
  • Quickly reheat the sauce.
  • Either leave the breasts whole or cut them, on a slight angle, into two or three pieces.
  • Put some lentils into the centre of six warmed plates, put a chicken breast on top of each serving and spoon some of the sauce around.
  • Serve immediately.
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Course; Chicken

Chicken stuffed with courgettes and ricotta

Chicken stuffed with courgettes and ricotta

This was inspired by Richard Olney. He has quite a few recipes for chicken with some kind of stuffing under the skin in his classic book Simple French Food (if you like serious food writing and elegant prose, this should be on your book shelf). One of the joys of a dish such as this is that it needs little else. It already contains vegetables and its own kind of ‘embellishment’. A green salad or some roast tomatoes and a grain or bread is all you need with it. Oh, and a bottle of decent wine.
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Ingredients

  • finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
  • 4 garlic cloves crushed
  • olive oil
  • 2 kg 4lb 8oz chicken
  • 400 g 14oz courgettes
  • ½ tbsp salt
  • 30 g 1oz unsalted butter
  • pepper
  • ½ onion finely chopped
  • 130 g 4¾oz ricotta
  • 40 g 1½oz grated Parmesan
  • 1 egg lightly beaten
  • 25 g scant 1oz fresh breadcrumbs
  • leaves from a small bunch of basil chopped

Instructions

  • Mix the lemon zest, half the garlic and 3½ tbsp of olive oil together and rub all over the chicken, inside and out.
  • Cover loosely with cling film and leave to marinate in the fridge, turning every so often, for a couple of hours.
  • Bring to room temperature before cooking.
  • Trim the tops and bottoms from the courgettes, then cut them into julienne strips.
  • Layer them up in a colander, sprinkling with the salt as you do so.
  • Set over a bowl so that the juices can drip out.
  • You really need to do this as you need to dry the courgettes before cooking.
  • Once they’ve drained for one hour, take handfuls and squeeze out as much moisture as you can, really well.
  • Melt half the butter in a frying pan and sauté the courgettes for 10 minutes.
  • They should be golden.
  • Season with pepper (you won’t need salt) and set aside.
  • Sauté the onion in the rest of the butter in the same pan until soft but not coloured.
  • Add the rest of the garlic and cook for another three minutes or so.
  • Leave the courgettes and the onion mixture to cool completely.
  • Mash the ricotta in a bowl and add the cooled vegetables, the Parmesan, egg, breadcrumbs and basil.
  • Taste for seasoning.
  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Carefully loosen the skin of the chicken breast and legs as much as possible, without tearing, to create an area you can stuff (see technique for Roast chicken with mushrooms and sage butter under the skin).
  • Now take small handfuls of the ricotta mixture and work it in under the skin, pressing the skin on top to spread the stuffing.
  • All the stuffing should go in.
  • Season the outside of the chicken.
  • Roast in the hot oven for 1½ hours, basting from time to time.
  • Leave to rest – well insulated under a double layer of foil – for 15 minutes before serving.
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Course; Chicken

Chicken braised with shallots and chicory on jerusalem artichoke purée

Chicken braised with shallots and chicory on jerusalem artichoke purée

A dish of contrasts – bitter chicory, sweet shallots and nutty Jerusalem artichokes – that comes together very elegantly. I love the colours, too. The palette is completely limited, which gives it a kind of earthy, restrained beauty.
Couverts4
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • ¼ tbsp olive oil
  • 20 g ¾oz unsalted butter
  • 8 skin-on bone-in chicken thighs or a mixture of joints
  • salt and pepper
  • 4 heads of chicory nice fat ones if possible, halved lengthways
  • 16 shallots
  • 250 ml 9fl oz chicken stock
  • 3 sprigs of thyme plus thyme leaves to serve

FOR THE PURÉE

  • 750 g 1lb 10oz Jerusalem artichokes
  • good squeeze of lemon juice
  • 225 ml 8fl oz double cream, plus more if needed
  • 50 ml 2fl oz chicken stock, plus more if needed
  • 25 g scant 1oz unsalted butter
  • grating of fresh nutmeg

Instructions

  • Start with the chicken.
  • Heat the oil and butter in a sauté pan and brown the chicken pieces on all sides, seasoning with salt and pepper.
  • Make sure you don’t burn the fat.
  • Remove the chicken and set aside.
  • Now colour the cut sides of the chicory in the fat as well – you want it tinged with gold – then remove and set this aside, too.
  • Add the shallots to the pan and colour those on the outside as well.
  • Return the chicken to the sauté pan with the shallots and add the stock and sprigs of thyme.
  • Bring to the boil, then immediately reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer very gently for about 20 minutes.
  • Add the chicory to the pan – try and arrange everything in a single layer – and cook for another 15 minutes.
  • Make sure that there is still stock left in which to cook the chicory.
  • If there is too much liquid, then leave the lid off for the next bit of cooking, so it can reduce.
  • The dish is cooked when the juices in the chicken run clear with no trace of pink and the chicory is completely tender.
  • Taste the cooking liquids: because you have reduced stock, you shouldn’t need any more salt.
  • Meanwhile, to make the purée, cut the Jerusalem artichokes into chunks.
  • I don’t bother to peel them, but you can if you want.
  • As you cut them up, immediately drop them in a pan of water to which you have added a good squeeze of lemon juice (this stops the artichokes discolouring).
  • Bring the water to the boil and cook the artichokes until tender.
  • Drain the artichokes and return them to the pan.
  • Bring to the boil with the cream, stock, butter, nutmeg and seasoning.
  • Heat through, then purée in a blender.
  • Taste for seasoning and judge whether you need to add any more cream or stock (or water) for texture and thickness.
  • Serve with the chicken.
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Course; Chicken