Simple Cosy Stuffed Roast Chicken

May 23, 2016 — Leave a comment

Music I Cooked to:

Ingredients:

For the stuffing:

Half a jar of cranberry sauce – around 200g
100ml ruby port
2 small onion, chopped
200g Pancetta or smoked bacon cubes
100g butter
4 garlic cloves, chopped
900g sausage meat
280g fresh white or brown breadcrumbs
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
½ tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
300g peeled, cooked chestnuts roughly chopped
2 medium egg, lightly beaten
salt and pepper to taste

For the roast chicken:

2 x medium free-range chickens
about 500ml of chicken stock
250ml white wine
2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation Method:

For the stuffing –

Chop and fry the onion and pancetta gently in the butter, until the onion is tender and the bacon is cooked.
Add the garlic to onion and pancetta cubes and continue to fry for another minute or so.
Leave to cool slightly, then mix with all the remaining ingredients, including the cranberries and port, and add enough egg to bind. Fry a knob of stuffing in a little butter, taste and then adjust the seasoning as you see fit.
To stuff the chicken, begin at the neck end where you will find a flap of loose skin: gently loosen this away from the breast and pack about two-thirds of the stuffing inside. Make a neat round shape on the outside then tuck the neck flap under the bird’s back (you can secure it with a small skewer). Take the remaining stuffing and place it in the body cavity.
Place the chickens into a roasting tin, breast-sides up, and add just enough chicken stock and white wine to cover the bottom of the roasting tin.
Place the chicken in the roasting tin and smear 2 oz (50 g) of softened butter all over the chicken with your hands. Squeeze over the juice of half a lemon. Season the chicken all over with salt and freshly milled black pepper then arrange 7 rashers of smoked streaky bacon in a row along the breast. Cut one extra rasher in two and place a piece on each leg. Finally place the remaining half a lemon between the legs of the chicken. Cover the roasting tin with aluminium foil.
Roast in the centre of a pre-heated oven, gas mark 5, 375°F (190°C), for 20 minutes per lb (450 g) plus 10-20 minutes extra – this will be 1 hour and 50 minutes to 2 hours for a 5 lb (2.25 kg) bird. Baste three times with the stock/white wine mixture and fat during the cooking time. During the last basting, remove the crisped bacon rashers and keep them warm. For the final 30 minutes of cooking, remove the foil increase the heat to gas mark 7, 425°F (220°C) to give the skin that final golden crispiness. When it is cooked, remove it from the oven and cover it with foil. Sprinkle over some fresh chopped parsley. Leave to rest for 30 minutes before serving.

The stuffing used in this recipe can also be baked in a dish, or rolled into balls that will be crisp on the outside and moist inside. To bake, press the stuffing into a greased ovenproof dish in a layer that is around 4cm thick. Bake at 190C/gas 5/fan 170C for about 40 minutes, until browned and, in the case of sausage meat stuffing, cooked right through. Alternatively, roll into balls that are about 4cm in diameter. Roast the stuffing balls in hot fat (they can be tucked around the bird to be roasted, or done in a roasting tin of their own) for 30-40 minutes, until crisp and nicely browned on the outside.

Spicy Spanish Style Chicken

October 22, 2014 — Leave a comment

Pure warming, hearty, comfort food – perfect for this time of year as the nights begin to draw in. Frying the chicken before roasting it helps to give it a nice crispy skin, and then cooking it in the sauce adds loads of lovely spicy, punchy flavour to the meat. I like to eat this with some simply cooked white rice and lots of crusty bread to mop up the delicious sauce. Easy to cook, nutritious, healthy, easy on the wallet and amazingly tasty – whats not to like!

Music I Cooked to:

Ingredients

2 red onions
2 medium sized carrots
2 cloves of garlic
3 Chicken thighs (bone in)
3 Chicken legs
Tin butter beans
200g smoked ham (cubed or chopped) – ideally for authenticity use Panceta Adobado (Spanish pancetta). You could use normal pancetta… if you do, it would be good to marinade it in red wine vinegar, smoked paprika and garlic for a couple of hours beforehand. Link to Spanish Panceta HERE. Waitrose do an easy version HERE.
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp Sun Dried Tomato paste
2 tbsp chilli powder
2 tbsp smoked paprika
Handful chopped parsley
Handful peas (fresh or frozen)
salt and pepper to taste
100ml Chicken stock
100ml Balsamic vinegar
250ml red wine (spanish for extra authenticity)
Splash of red wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar or honey

Preparation Method:

Finely dice and chop the onions, chilli, and garlic.
Very finely slice the carrots
Heat a frying pan with a tbsp of vegetable oil. At the same time pre-heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan.
Fry the chicken pieces until they are nicely browned all over.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper – cover with foil and set aside
In the same pan fry the onion over a medium-high heat until they begin to brown.
Add the carrots and fry for another 8 mins until the carrot begins to soften. Add a splash of red wine vinegar.
Add the garlic and chilli and continue to fry for a further 5 mins.
Add the red wine, balsamic vinegar and chicken stock. Turn down to a medium heat and cook for 5 mins
Add the tomato puree, sun dried tomato paste, smoked paprika, chilli powder and stir in. Continue to reduce. You should end up with a thick sauce like consistency.
Drain the butter beans and add to the sauce
Add the chicken pieces to the sauce.
Add the sugar. Simmer the whole mixture for a further 5 mins.
Take the base mixture off the hob, cover with foil and place in the oven for around 30mins.
After 25mins quickly fry the smoked ham in some oil for around 2mins
After 30mins remove from the oven, take off the foil. Baste the chicken with the sauce, add the smoked ham to the pan and place back in the oven for another 10-15 mins until the chicken skin is nicely browned and crispy.
For the last few minutes of cooking time place the peas into the pan
Remove from the oven and sprinkle over the parsley
To serve prepare some white rice, spoon the rice into a bowl and then place a piece of chicken meat with a generous helping of the rich, delicious sauce on top.

Herb Crusted Lamb with Minted Peas, Pancetta, and Lettuce

April 28, 2014 — Leave a comment

This dish is fast, simple, light, full of flavour and wonderful colours. A rack of lamb dish like this really is very quick to put together and makes a perfect fast lunch or dinner that tastes really fresh and succulent. The cool, sweet, subtle tastes and textures of the herbs and vegetables compliment the meaty, salty lamb and pancetta really well – and the herb crust on the lamb adds a wonderful textural element to the meat, and imparts some great extra flavour punchiness. Just a quick note for the sake of total disclosure – the vegetable part if this dish was inspired by the cooking of the immense Dominic Chapman from a recipe in which he pairs it with a confit of duck. I’ve changed the amounts and adjusted the flavours slightly, by omitting spring onion which he includes, as I felt the spring onion would be a flavour too far with the herb crust of the lamb.

INGREDIENTS

Herb Crusted Lamb

Small, trimmed rack of lamb (mine was 300g)
150g of dry bread crumbs
Sprig parsley
Sprig thyme
Sprig coriander
Sprig rosemary
1 tablespoons English mustard
splash of olive oil

Braised peas, lettuce, bacon, mint

A large handful of garden peas
4 baby gem lettuce leaves
100g of diced Pancetta
20g of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
30g of butter

MUSIC I COOKED TO:

Preparation Method:

Place your herbs on a large chopping board and finely chop them together with the garlic.
Add them to the bread crumbs in a bowl.
Add light olive oil until the mixtures becomes well coated and fluid.
Place mixture into a mortar and pestle and crush into a fine crust. Set aside.
Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC
Place lamb on a cutting board. Generously season the lamb with salt and pepper – ensuring it’s thoroughly coated all over.
Heat some light, frying olive oil in an oven safe pan. Seal and brown the lamb all over.
Transfer the lamb in the pan into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. Start to prepare the vegetables while the lamb is cooking.
In a large pan, start to fry the diced bacon on a medium heat until golden. Remove the bacon from the pan and keep in a warm place until required.
Remove the lamb from the oven and brush the top of the rack generously with the mustard. Dip the lamb into the crust mixture coating the top. Dip several times to ensure an even coating. Allow meat to rest for a bit.
Place it back into the oven for 3 minutes, remove, and allow to rest until ready to serve.
Increase the heat under the veg on the hob, add the butter and and small dash of water, stirring to emulsify in the pan. Add the 4 lettuce leaves and cook until just tender, but still green.
Next, add the peas and return the bacon back to the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Strain off any excess liquid in a colander, season to taste and add the fresh chopped mint to finish
Crave the lamb into individual chops.
To serve place the lettuce leaves on the centre of the plate, next add the minted peas and Pancetta. Place one or two chops on top of the vegetables and Pancetta.