cherry and bulgar-stuffed poussins in vine leaves

cherry and bulgar-stuffed poussins in vine leaves

You can use vine leaves preserved in brine (they come both in packets and jars) if you can’t get hold of fresh leaves, but you might find you have them in your own garden (I did, without knowing it), or a neighbour might have them. I first ate this dish in Turkey, where it was made with quail. The Turks certainly know how to make a fuss of cherries.
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Ingredients

FOR THE STUFFING

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion very finely chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves crushed
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground allspice
  • 500 g 1lb 2oz bulgar wheat
  • 200 g 7oz dried sour cherries
  • 800 ml 1 pint 7fl oz chicken stock
  • 400 g 14oz cherries, pitted and halved
  • large handful of mint leaves torn

FOR THE POUSSINS

  • 3 tbsp olive oil plus more for the vine leaves and cherries
  • 6 poussins
  • salt and pepper
  • 12 –18 vine leaves depending on size, well washed and patted dry
  • 200 g 7oz cherries, unpitted (leave the stalks on, if there are any)

Instructions

  • First make the stuffing.
  • Heat the oil in a saucepan and sauté the onion until soft and pale gold.
  • Add the garlic and spices and cook for another minute, then add the bulgar wheat, dried cherries and stock.
  • Bring to the boil, then immediately reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
  • Add the fresh cherries and mint and leave to cool.
  • Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
  • Heat the oil for the poussins in a frying pan and cook them, turning, until golden brown all over.
  • Remove them (and reserve the pan juices).
  • Allow to cool, then season all over and fill them with the stuffing.
  • Brush the vine leaves on both sides with a little olive oil, then place two to three round each bird, tying them with kitchen string.
  • Put into a roasting tin and drizzle with the juices from the frying pan.
  • Season.
  • Cook in the oven for 25 minutes.
  • Toss the whole cherries into the tin and drizzle with oil.
  • Cook for another 20–25 minutes, or until the poussins are cooked through.
  • Cover with foil and allow to rest for about 10 minutes.
  • Serve on a platter with the cooked cherries.
  • Greek yogurt mixed with chopped mint leaves and a little crushed garlic – and cucumber salad – are good on the side.
  • I like warm flatbread, too.
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Course; Fruit

Roast chicken stuffed with black pudding and apple and mustard sauce

Roast chicken stuffed with black pudding and apple and mustard sauce

A good autumnal spin on the roast chicken Sunday lunch. Get good-quality black pudding; I use Clonakilty, though it’s not available everywhere. Preparing the sauce ahead makes things easy.
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Ingredients

FOR THE STUFFING

  • 25 g scant 1oz unsalted butter
  • ½ onion finely chopped
  • 125 g 4½oz black pudding, cut into chunks
  • 100 g 3½oz streaky bacon, rind removed and chopped
  • 1 small tart eating apple peeled, cored and cut into small chunks (you should have 125g/4½oz)
  • 100 g 3½oz white or brown breadcrumbs
  • leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme
  • 1 egg lightly beaten
  • salt and pepper

FOR THE CHICKEN

Instructions

  • Start with the stuffing.
  • Melt the butter in a saucepan and sauté the onion, black pudding, bacon and apple together until golden.
  • Mix with all the other stuffing ingredients, season well and leave to cool.
  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Season the chicken inside, then stuff it and season the outside.
  • Set in a roasting tin and smear butter over the top of the bird.
  • Put in the hot oven and roast for 1 hour 30 minutes.
  • Remove to a warmed platter, cover with a double layer of foil and keep the bird warm.
  • Leave to rest for 15 minutes.
  • Pour the cooking juices out of the roasting tin and skim off the fat.
  • Pour 150ml (5fl oz) of water into the roasting tin and set it over a medium-high heat.
  • Boil, scraping the base of the roasting tin, until you have about 75ml (2½fl oz) left.
  • Add to the skimmed chicken juices and heat through.
  • Make the Mustard sauce, adding the chicken juices.
  • If it is too thick, add water until you get the consistency you want (about that of single cream).
  • Check for seasoning and serve with the chicken, its juices and the stuffing.
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Course; Chicken

Lemon and pistachio chicken

Lemon and pistachio chicken

I was given this recipe years ago by a chef in a pub in London and have served it every year since, usually around Easter time. I think it’s the pistachios that make it; the general greenness and lightness of the dish means it is very right for spring. Serve with spring greens or a big salad of pea shoots and watercress and some sautéed or boiled baby potatoes.
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Ingredients

  • 2 shallots finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves crushed
  • leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme
  • 70 g 2½oz unsalted butter
  • salt and pepper
  • 120 g 4¼oz shelled pistachio nuts
  • 40 g 1½oz white breadcrumbs, plus more if needed
  • finely grated zest and juice of 2 unwaxed lemons
  • 2 tbsp olive oil plus more for drizzling
  • good pinch of caster sugar
  • handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves roughly chopped
  • 6 large skin-on boneless chicken breasts
  • 2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
  • 300 ml ½ pint chicken stock

Instructions

  • Put the shallots, garlic and half the thyme into a pan with 50g (1¾oz) of the butter and a pinch of salt.
  • Set over a low heat and cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Tip into a large bowl.
  • Chop the pistachio nuts, or put them in a food processor and blend them until they are coarsely chopped.
  • Add the nuts and the breadcrumbs to the shallot mixture.
  • Add the lemon zest and juice, the oil, sugar and parsley and season well.
  • Stir the mixture.
  • It should form a stiff, coarse paste.
  • If it seems too dry, add a little extra olive oil.
  • If it seems too wet, add extra breadcrumbs.
  • Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.
  • Place the point of a knife into the thicker side of a chicken breast and cut a cavity that runs along the length of the flesh.
  • Season the breast inside, then, using a teaspoon, fill the hole with the stuffing.
  • Squeeze the sides of the breast together so that the incision closes as much as possible.
  • Repeat with all the chicken breasts.
  • Season the breasts on the outside, drizzle with a little olive oil and put them in a roasting tin.
  • Bake in the hot oven for 20–25 minutes.
  • Once the chicken is cooked, remove the breasts from the roasting tin and skim off the fat from the juices.
  • Set the roasting tin over a medium heat and splash in the white balsamic vinegar and stock.
  • Bring this to a rolling boil and reduce until slightly thickened.
  • Throw in the remaining butter and thyme and serve the chicken with these juices.
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Course; Chicken

Spiced roast chicken with barley-pomegranate stuffing and georgian aubergine pkhali

Spiced roast chicken with barley-pomegranate stuffing and georgian aubergine pkhali

Only the purée here is actually Georgian, but the chicken is inspired by Georgian food. It might seem like a lot of aubergine but when you’re only using the insides you don’t end up with much purée. In the summer you can replace the pomegranate seeds in the stuffing with fresh cherries
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • 80 g 2¾oz pearl barley
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves chopped
  • salt and pepper
  • 100 g 3½oz feta cheese, crumbled
  • 3 tbsp roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • 3 tbsp roughly chopped coriander leaves
  • 135 g 5oz pomegranate seeds
  • 1.8 kg 4lb chicken
  • 300 g 10½oz crème fraîche
  • pinch of cayenne pepper

FOR THE AUBERGINES

Instructions

  • Put the barley in a saucepan and cover with water.
  • Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
  • Drain and place in a mixing bowl.
  • Pour the olive oil into a frying pan and sauté the onion until soft and pale gold, then add the garlic and cook for two minutes.
  • Add to the barley and leave to cool, then add the seasoning, feta, herbs and pomegranate.
  • Check for seasoning.
  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Brush the aubergines with oil, pierce a few times with a fork, then put them on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 40–50 minutes; they should be completely tender.
  • Leave to cool.
  • Remove the excess fat from the chicken cavity.
  • Season the chicken inside, then put it in a roasting tin and stuff.
  • If you want to secure the chicken, you can sew it up with kitchen string, or fix with small skewers.
  • Truss the chicken if you want to.
  • (I often leave the cavity gaping, the stuffing tumbling out, but it’s a matter of taste and time.
  • ) Mix the crème fraîche with the cayenne and season.
  • Spread all over the chicken, pushing it between the legs and body as well.
  • Roast in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes; cover the bird with foil if it starts to get too dark.
  • Put the garlic in a mortar with the salt and grind to a paste.
  • Pound the spices in, too.
  • Add the walnuts, half the virgin oil and half the parsley and pound to a rough paste – I like it with chunks of walnuts – then stir in the rest of the oil, the vinegar, 1 tbsp of water and the rest of the parsley.
  • Taste for seasoning.
  • It will seem really assertive but it works with the aubergine flesh.
  • Split the aubergines in half and scoop the insides into a bowl.
  • Mash to a rough purée, then stir in the walnut mixture.
  • When the chicken is done the juices between the leg and the breast should run clear, with no trace of pink.
  • Allow to rest for 15 minutes, then serve with the aubergine.
  • You don’t really need any more starch, but a bowl of yogurt is a good thing.
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Course; Chicken

Paprika roast chicken with caraway potatoes, quick-pickled cucumber and soured cream

Paprika roast chicken with caraway potatoes, quick-pickled cucumber and soured cream

I serve paprika chicken with different accompaniments, but think this is my favourite combination. You can also try warm potato salad with chopped sweet-sour cucumber tossed into it, waxy potatoes with sautéed smoked bacon (don’t serve soured cream if you use bacon, it’s just too rich), and Savoy cabbage with dill instead of the cucumber. It depends on your mood and the time of year. The chicken is also good served with wide egg noodles instead of potatoes (toss the cooked noodles in melted butter and scatter with poppy seeds before serving). The chicken itself is very simple. But the extra touches – the thyme and garlic inside the cavity, for example – make all the difference.
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Ingredients

FOR THE CUCUMBER

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • 30 g 1oz unsalted butter, softened
  • ½ tbsp paprika
  • ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
  • leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme plus 6 whole sprigs of thyme
  • 1.8 kg 4lb chicken
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 bulbs of garlic halved horizontally
  • soured cream to serve

FOR THE POTATOES

  • 400 g 14oz baby waxy potatoes
  • 10 g ¼oz unsalted butter
  • 1½ tsp caraway seeds lightly crushed

Instructions

  • Cut the ends off the cucumber and slice the rest into very fine slices, they should be almost transparent.
  • Layer in a colander with the salt, place a plate on top and set over a bowl so that the juices can run out.
  • Leave for two hours.
  • Rinse the cucumber and carefully pat dry.
  • Mix the cucumber with the rest of the ingredients and keep, covered, in the fridge until ready to serve.
  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • For the chicken, mix the butter with the paprika, cayenne and the thyme leaves.
  • I usually pound it in a mortar and pestle to make sure all the flavours are mingled well.
  • Put the chicken into a roasting tin and spread the butter all over, rubbing it over the legs as well as the breast.
  • Season with salt and pepper.
  • Put the whole sprigs of thyme and the garlic into the cavity of the bird.
  • Roast in the hot oven for 1 hour 15 minutes, basting from time to time
  • The potatoes will take about 20 minutes to cook, so back-time them to be ready when the chicken is done and has rested for about 15 minutes.
  • Boil the potatoes in water until they are tender right through, then drain.
  • Melt the butter in the pan in which they were cooked, add the caraway and cook for about 30 seconds, then return the potatoes and toss with the butter and seeds.
  • Season with salt and pepper.
  • Serve the chicken with the roasting juices (they’re lovely and garlicky as well as full of paprika), a bowl of soured cream sprinkled with cayenne or paprika, the potatoes and cucumber.
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Course; Chicken

Chicken legs in pinot noir with sour cherries and parsnip purée

Chicken legs in pinot noir with sour cherries and parsnip purée

It’s amazing what you can do with some chicken legs and a packet of dried fruit! This dish is dark, rich and rather grand-looking. You don’t have to use Pinot Noir, but the grape does have cherry tones. Any other light, fruity red wine is fine, though.
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • 400 ml 14fl oz Pinot Noir
  • 400 ml 14fl oz chicken stock
  • 4 skin-on bone-in chicken legs drumsticks and thighs attached
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 –2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 onions halved, each half cut into 4 wedges
  • 3 garlic cloves crushed
  • 4 tbsp sour cherry juice optional
  • 4 sprigs of thyme plus more thyme leaves
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 5 cm 2in cinnamon stick
  • 100 g 3½oz dried sour cherries

FOR THE PARSNIP PURÉE

Instructions

  • Reduce the wine and the stock, separately, until they each come to 250ml (9fl oz) of liquid.
  • Trim the chicken of any raggedy bits of skin and season with salt and pepper.
  • Heat the oil in a sauté pan and brown the chicken legs all over.
  • When they’re a good golden colour – and it is really important to get this as it looks and tastes much better in the finished dish – remove them to a plate.
  • Pour all but 1 tbsp fat out of the pan.
  • Add the onions to the pan and cook over a medium-low heat until they are pale gold.
  • Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.
  • Pour on the reduced stock and wine, the cherry juice (if you’ve been able to get some), herbs, cinnamon stick and sour cherries.
  • Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer.
  • Return the chicken legs – together with any juices that have run out of them – to the pan.
  • Season, cover and cook for 20 minutes, scooping the wine up over the chicken from time to time.
  • Take the lid off and cook for another 20 minutes.
  • Put the parsnips in a saucepan, cover with the chicken stock and bring to the boil.
  • Reduce the heat a little and cook until completely tender, about 15 minutes.
  • Strain, reserving the cooking liquor.
  • Put the parsnips in a food processor or blender (a blender produces a smoother purée) and process with all the other ingredients, with just enough of the cooking liquor to make a fine silky purée; remember you are not making a soup, the mixture should be smooth but not too thin.
  • Taste for seasoning and adjust any elements you think are not quite right.
  • Scrape the purée back into the pan and reheat it gently.
  • The juices in the chicken will have reduced and you should be left with enough sauce just to coat the chicken legs and the fruit.
  • Taste for seasoning and sprinkle on the thyme leaves.
  • Serve the chicken from the sauté pan with the parsnip purée.
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Course; Chicken

Mustard chicken, black beans and avocado salsa

Mustard chicken, black beans and avocado salsa

Hot, spicy chicken, avocado, black beans andcheese too… almost a chicken version of a great chilli. Different, but glorious.Serve with tortillas, soured cream and feta, Wensleydale or mild goat’s cheese.
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

FOR THE BEANS

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion finely chopped
  • 2 red peppers chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves finely chopped
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 chillies deseeded, sliced
  • finely grated zest of ½ orange
  • 150 ml 5fl oz chicken stock
  • 50 ml 2fl oz orange juice
  • 2 x 400g cans of black beans
  • juice of ½–1 lime

FOR THE AVOCADO SALSA

Instructions

  • Make little incisions all over the underside side of the thighs; don’t pierce the skin.
  • Make the marinade by mixing everything else in a dish that will hold all the chicken.
  • Put the thighs in, turn, cover with cling film and put in the fridge.
  • Leave for at least four hours – overnight is even better – turning a couple of times.
  • Bring to room temperature before cooking.
  • When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
  • Remove the chicken from the marinade and put into a roasting tin or ovenproof dish where it can lie in a single layer.
  • Put into the oven and roast for 35–40 minutes, or until cooked through, basting every so often.
  • The chicken should end up a deep golden colour.
  • It’s really quick to make the beans and salsa, so prepare them while the chicken is cooking.
  • For the beans, heat the olive oil in a saucepan over a medium heat and sauté the onion and peppers together, reducing the heat, until the onion is pale gold and the peppers are beginning to soften.
  • Add the garlic and cook for another minute, then add the cumin, chillies and orange zest and cook for another two minutes.
  • Pour in the stock, orange juice and seasoning and cook over a low heat until the vegetables are soft.
  • Carefully rinse the black beans and stir into the peppers.
  • Season and heat through for a few minutes.
  • You want the beans to pick up the flavours of the other ingredients; in fact they benefit from sitting in the juices and being reheated at the last minute.
  • Add lime juice to taste, it heightens and freshens the flavours.
  • To make the salsa, finely chop the tomatoes, garlic, spring onions and chillies.
  • Mix with the other ingredients and season well, but don’t make this more than an hour ahead of serving as it discolours.
  • Once you’ve made it, cover the salsa and let the flavours infuse.
  • Serve the chicken on a platter with sprigs of coriander, along with the beans, salsa and some cheese and soured cream.
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Course; Chicken

Chicken orvieto

Chicken orvieto

Over the years I have probably cooked this more than any other chicken dish. It’s based on a dish in Alastair Little’s Italian Kitchen (out of print but worth tracking down on the internet) and I’ve changed it only slightly. Alastair Little, who used to have his own restaurant in Soho in London, had a big effect on how we cook… much bigger than he is given credit for. He was the first person, back in the 1980s, to create menus of dishes from the Middle East and Japan as well as Italy, a range that was new to British diners. Even though there is fennel in the stuffing, I usually serve this with a creamy fennel gratin – bubbling under a Parmesan crust – and a dish of roast tomatoes. Now that’s a great Sunday lunch.
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Ingredients

  • olive oil
  • 1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs trimmed and finely chopped (fronds reserved and chopped)
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 100 g 3½oz pancetta lardons
  • 250 g 9oz chicken livers, cleaned and chopped
  • 50 black olives pitted, half of them roughly chopped
  • finely grated zest of ½ unwaxed lemon
  • leaves from a few sprigs of thyme
  • 200 g 7oz waxy potatoes, cut into cubes (no need to peel)
  • salt and pepper
  • 1.8 kg 4lb chicken
  • 50 garlic cloves unpeeled
  • 250 ml 9fl oz dry white wine
  • 500 ml 18fl oz chicken stock

Instructions

  • Heat ½ tbsp of the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the fennel and onion for a couple of minutes.
  • Add the pancetta and cook until it is golden on all sides and the onion and fennel are soft.
  • Add the livers and toss until they no longer look raw.
  • Put this into a bowl with the chopped olives, lemon zest and thyme.
  • Put 2 tbsp of olive oil into the pan and add the potatoes.
  • Cook until they are tender, stirring occasionally.
  • The potatoes will stick a bit but that’s fine.
  • Season.
  • Add to the olive bowl and toss.
  • Leave to cool.
  • Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.
  • Remove the excess fat around the chicken cavity then stuff the chicken.
  • Either sew up the cavity, or use small skewers.
  • Put the bird in a roasting tin and drizzle some olive oil over it, then rub it all over, including into the space between the legs and body of the bird.
  • Season with pepper and sea salt flakes.
  • Put into the hot oven and cook for 20 minutes.
  • Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and cook for another hour.
  • When the chicken has 40 minutes left to cook, toss the garlic cloves into the roasting tin, turning them over in the fat.
  • Check the chicken is done, then put it on a heated platter and cover with foil.
  • Scoop up the garlic, put in a dish and keep warm.
  • Remove the excess fat from the roasting tin, then set it over a medium heat and add the wine, stirring to scrape up the bits.
  • Boil until about 50ml (2fl oz) is left.
  • Pour in the stock and boil until reduced by three-quarters.
  • Briefly add the whole olives, then strain the cooking juices and add the olives to the garlic.
  • Cut the chicken into eight joints and serve with the olives and garlic over the top, with any fennel fronds you removed earlier.
  • Put the stuffing on the same platter or into a bowl and pour the juices into a jug.
  • Serve.
  • You don’t need any starch on the side.
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Course; Chicken

Poussins with indian spices and fresh coriander and coconut chutney

Poussins with indian spices and fresh coriander and coconut chutney

The components here are quite simple, but blend wonderfully together. It’s the abundance of the presentation – get out your biggest platter for the poussins – that makes it seem like a feast. Serve with a mango and spinach salad that you’ve dressed with a nice tart lime and chilli vinaigrette.
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Ingredients

FOR THE POUSSINS

FOR THE BUTTER

FOR THE CHUTNEY

  • ½ tsp cumin seeds
  • 50 g 1¾oz bunch of coriander, plus more to serve
  • 100 g 3½oz creamed coconut (in a block), or fresh coconut, grated
  • 2 green chillies deseeded and roughly chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves roughly chopped
  • 2.5 cm 1in root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
  • finely grated zest of 1 lime and juice of 2
  • salt
  • 3 tsp caster sugar optional

Instructions

  • To prepare the poussins, mix the first seven ingredients together and rub all over the birds.
  • Gently ease the skin off the breasts and legs of the poussins at the cavity openings and spoon the mixture underneath, too (see technique for Roast chicken with mushrooms and sage butter under the skin).
  • Place on a large dish, cover loosely with cling film and put in the fridge to marinate for two to four hours.
  • Bring the birds to room temperature before cooking.
  • When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
  • To make the butter, just mash all the ingredients together in a small bowl.
  • Using your hands, spread this all over the birds, then put them into a roasting tin and cook in the hot oven for 45–50 minutes, or until the birds are a lovely dark brown and, when pierced with a sharp knife between the thigh and the body, the juices that run out are clear, with no trace of pink.
  • Cover with foil and leave to rest for 10–15 minutes.
  • For the chutney, put the cumin seeds in a dry pan and toast until they are fragrant (about 40 seconds).
  • Put all the ingredients for the chutney into a food processor and whizz to a paste.
  • (If you want a sweet version, add the sugar. ) Taste for seasoning.
  • This will be fine in the fridge for three days, but let it come to room temperature before serving, as it sets rather solidly.
  • To serve, get out your biggest platter.
  • Boil some white basmati rice and stir plenty of chopped coriander through it.
  • Spread the rice out on the platter and put the birds on top.
  • Spoon on the cooking juices – they will make the birds glossy and season the rice, too – and serve with the chutney and a mango and spinach salad.
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Course; Chicken

Poussins with black grapes, juniper and saba

Poussins with black grapes, juniper and saba

Saba – also called vincotto – is grape must. You can buy it online from www.melburyandappleton.co.uk, or in Italian delicatessens. You know those rainy November days we get? Make this. You’ll be reminded of what is good about autumn.
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Ingredients

  • 4 poussins
  • 12 juniper berries lightly crushed
  • 15 g ½oz unsalted butter, slightly softened
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 large onion sliced
  • 2 celery sticks finely chopped
  • olive oil
  • 600 g 1lb 5oz seedless black grapes, half on their stalks in small bunches, half off their stalks
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 6 sprigs of thyme
  • 250 ml 9fl oz red wine
  • 75 ml 2½fl oz saba

Instructions

  • Gently ease the skin off the breasts of the poussins at the cavity openings (see technique for Roast chicken with mushrooms and sage butter under the skin).
  • Mash half of the juniper berries into the butter, season with pepper and gently spread it under the skin (without tearing the skin).
  • Season the birds inside.
  • Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
  • Put the onion and celery in an ovenproof dish that will hold the grapes and poussins snugly in a single layer.
  • Season and stir in 2 tbsp of olive oil.
  • Using a wooden spoon (or a mortar and pestle), roughly crush the grapes that are off their stalks so the juice starts to come out.
  • Lay the poussins and the little bunches of grapes on the vegetables and spoon the crushed grapes around them.
  • Tuck in the bay leaves and thyme.
  • Season, sprinkle with the rest of the crushed juniper and drizzle a little olive oil over the grapes and poussins.
  • Mix the wine with the saba and pour it around the poussins.
  • Put into the hot oven and roast for 45–50 minutes, or until the grapes are slightly shrunken in places and the poussins are cooked.
  • You need to baste the birds every so often.
  • Test they are ready: when pierced with a sharp knife between the thigh and the body, the juices that run out should be clear, with no trace of pink.
  • Serve, preferably in the dish in which the poussins have been cooked, with buttered cabbage.
  • Spelt, farro or barley, or olive oil-roasted potatoes, are all good on the side.
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Course; Chicken