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roast chicken

The humble roast chicken is anything but. It's a real crowd-pleaser. Vegetarians, I feel genuinely sorry that you'll never know the succulent, meaty joy of a crisp, moist roast chicken.

How I cook it depends on what's to hand. Here it's stuffed with a chopped onion, which evaporates sweet perfume throughout the bird, and liberally rubbed with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh thyme. It's sat on a bed of root veg, ready to make gravy with afterwards. I also have a favoured version which starts with fried bacon deglazed with brandy to kick the cooking off.

I generally start it off on a high heat (225C), then take it down to about 180C once it's in. A good basting from the run-off juices every 20 mins or so keeps it moist and returns flavour to the bird. Once a skewer allows clear juice running from the thigh it's done. You must let it rest to retain moistness and flavour, in this case it sat for about half an hour.

The gravy was simply the roasting pan, veg and all, over the hob and chicken stock allowed to bubble over for a few minutes until thick and dark, then strained off. Glorious.

chicken and mushroom hotpot

Wow, this was a Jamie great. Very pleased with the results.

Started with chicken legs: skinned, then trimmed the meat off and diced. The skin was then put into a hot pan and allowed to render the fat out. Then browned the leg meat, and added onion, garlic and celery. Once this had all sweated a little I chucked in some sliced chestnut mushrooms and seasoned well. Then, a spoon of flour mixed through to help thicken it up. I added some chicken stock until soupy, then lovely wood thyme.

I poured this into a casserole pot and topped with lightly-boiled sliced potatoes and baked in the oven for half an hour. Thick, savoury and a lovely blend of textures. Nice!

pancetta & pea risotto

Risotto is a deeply calming dish, both to cook and especially to eat. What amazes me about risotto is that it starts the same but can end so many ways depending on what you add.

It starts with: onions fried gently, then the heat turned up as your arborio or carnaroli rice is added. A handy tip for measuring rice: two handfuls per person. The rice needs to get hot and toasted all over to prepare it for absorbing stock. Stock should be boiling the background (thank you, last week's chicken stock). Booze is needed here, a glass of white wine is best. Allow this to bubble to nearly nothing. Then stock is added a ladelful at a time, allowing it to reduce away until sticky. You need a bit of armwork, stirring away to move the rice off the bottom of the pan. Once the rice is tender and tasty, you can eat as is (a little dull) or add what works for you.

For me, it's grated parmesan and butter, vigorously stirred through. In this case I added fried pancetta just beforehan, kept to one side then put back into the rice at the end. Some frozen peas and it's ready. Eat with a spoon and a lazy grin.

chicken stock

I love making chicken stock. It means there's a really excellent meal coming in the next day or so, and whilst it bubbles away the whole house smells of divine chickeniness.

Using our friend from earlier in the week, all the leftovers were tossed into a roasting tray with some assorted veg: celery, carrots, onions and any other oddity that was clogging up the fridge. That's the beauty of stock; it doesn't really matter what goes in there, they each add their own interesting note to it. If I've got a marmesan rind knocking about that'll go in, in this case some spare pancetta and a couple of tomatoes were the guest stars.

After about half an hour's roasting it all goes in a pot, covered with water and boiled for maybe an hour and a half, the timing's not terribly important. When it's cooled it's strained off then left covered in the fridge. The best stocks wobble like a loose jelly when chilled. This one had a pleasing little jiggle to it.

Now, what to do with it?

chicken with spinach

Inspired by a true muse, I've heartily ripped this wholesale from Giorgio Locatelli.

It really couldn't be easier: a chicken breast is butterflied and sliced laterally before being battered thin to get the most surface area possible. This means that it can be cooked quickly and keep as much moisture in as possible. It's placed on a griddle for about five mins, until it develops those lovely char marks and the white is creeping up the sides. Then I flip it over for a minute or so until it's done all the way through. I made sure it was seasoned on both faces, and left a smashed garlic clove on top while it cooked.

I served it with some lightly wilted spinach and some cheap-ass chickeny noodles (10p from Tesco!), finished with lemon wedges and drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil. Very nice, and super-quick.

roast chicken legs

Roasted for an hour with salt and pepper. Golden brown, pulled away from the bone dead easy, and really tasty meat.