chicken spectacular 2 fab recipies

Chicken spectacular Roast chicken and chicken and mushroom risotto



Food writer Gizzi Erskine shows us how to make our weekly shop go further with two tasty chicken recipes
Roast Chicken with herb, garlic and lemon butter

• 30g butter, at room temperature
  
• 2 garlic cloves, grated
  
• 3 sprigs thyme, chopped
  
• 3 sprigs sage, chopped
  
• zest 1 lemon
  
• 1 large whole chicken, go for free range if you can afford it
  
• lots of salt and pepper
  
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
  
• 400ml chicken stock
  

Roast potatoes

• 5 largish potatoes, peeled and quartered, then parboiled for 8 minutes
  
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
  

Honeyed carrots

• 5 carrots, peeled and grated
  
• 1 rounded tablespoon butter
  
• 1 tablespoon runny honey
  
• salt and pepper
  

Broccoli with toasted almonds

• 1 head broccoli, cut into florets, par boiled for 3 minutes
  
• 1 tablespoon butter
  
• 50g flaked toasted almonds
  
• juice ½ lemon
  

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Firstly make the butter by mashing together the butter, garlic, herbs and lemon zest. Rub this underneath the chicken skin and season the top of the chicken heavily with salt and pepper. Place the chicken in the oven and roast for 20 minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 180C, then carry of roasting the chicken for a further hour. When cooked leave the chicken to rest covered in foil to keep it hot for 30 minutes.
   
2. When the chicken has an hour left to cook heat the olive oil in a roasting tray. I love olive oil for roasting potatoes, but you can use any vegetable oil or goose fat if you like. Heat the oil in the oven for 5 minutes, then tip the drained parboiled potatoes into the hot fat. (Give the potatoes a bit of a shake in the sieve so the edges go grainy as this will give the crispiest potatoes. Turn each potato to coat in the oil then roast in the oven turning every 20 minutes for an hour.
   
3. Put the grated carrots into a saucepan with the butter, honey and salt and pepper. Slowly heat the pan so the butter melts. The idea is to steam the carrots really slowly in the liquid that comes out of them as they cook. You must cook them really slowly as they have honey in them and on too higher heat they could scorch. Cook for 10 – 15 minutes.
   
4. Heat the butter in a frying pan. Add the almonds and toast gently in the butter. When they are golden squeeze in the lemon juice to stop in cooking. Toss in the cooked broccoli and give it a good mix.
   
5. While the bird is resting you can get on with the gravy. Remove the bird from the roasting tray and set aside on a plate that will collect its juices while it is resting. If there is more than a couple of tablespoons of fat in the tray tip it away being careful not to let any of the juices pour away. This will be obvious as the juice and fat split. Stir in the flour making sure you scrape off all the marmitey bits stuck to the roasting pan. These are packed with chickeny flavour. Cook the flour out for one minute then bit by bit stir in the stock. If you pour it all in at once it will go lumpy. Bring the gravy to the boil until it becomes slightly syrupy, then strain through a fine sieve before serving.
   

Chicken stock

• The carcass of an eaten roast chicken, with all of the meat torn away
  
• 2 onions, peeled and quartered
  
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped into 3
  
• 2 leeks, chopped into 3
  
• Some herbs if you have them lying around
  
• a few parsley stalks
  
• 1 Bay leaf
  
• a few sprigs of thyme
  
• 8 black peppercorns
  

1. Place all of the ingredients into a large, deep cooking pot and cover with cold water. Slowly bring to the boil. As it begins to boil you will notice it starts to excrete a scum that rises to the surface. With a large spoon or a small ladel skim this along with any fat of the top of the water. When the stock is reaching boiling point, turn it down and let it gently simmer away for 3 hours.
   
2. There are 2 points with stock making. 1. You must not let it boil. The bubbles will knock away at all of the proteins and make the stock cloudy and 2. You must keep skimming the top of the stock as it cooks. The majority of the 'scum' will appear during the first half an hour of cooking so don't feel like you need to watch it the whole time. As the stock cooks it will begin to reduce but for the cooking time you must keep the water level above the contents of the pot so if you need to add a bit more water to the pot make sure you add cold water. This will pull out any scum hiding at the bottom of the pan.
   
3. When the 3 hours are up you need to strain the stock. Get a large pan or mixing bowl and top it with a fine sieve. Pour the stock through the sieve collecting all the flavoursome juices. If you taste the stock at this stage, it may not have much flavour to it and just taste like slightly flavoured water. You will need to reduce the liquid by boiling it slowly in order for the flavours to be condensed so put it back on the hob and bring it to the boil. As it reduces taste it every so often to see how its flavour is. When your happy you can either use it straight away or transfer it to the fridge. A good chicken stock will have a really chickeny essence to it and on refrigeration will become turn to jelly
   

Chicken and mushroom risotto

• 1 25g packet dried mixed mushrooms
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 1 onion, finely chopped
  
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  
• a few sprigs of thyme, chopped
  
• 1 glass white wine
  
• 400ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
  
• 30g butter
  
• 100g chestnut mushrooms
  
• 30g grated Parmesan
  

1. Place the dried mushrooms into a measuring jug then cover with boiling water. Set aside for 10 minutes while you sautee the onions. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Fry the onion over a lowish heat for 10 minutes or until the onions have softened. For the last minute of cooking add the garlic and thyme to the pan.
   
2. Drain the dried mushrooms reserving 100ml of the liquid they have been rehydrating in and mix that with the hot stock.
   
3. Add the rice and stir for a minute or two to coat the grains of rice. Pour over the glass of wine and keep stirring while the wine is absorbed into the grains.
   
4. Gradually ladle the hot stock into the risotto letting it absorb between each ladle. Keep stirring it too as this encourages the starch to come out which is what makes risotto have that creamy texture.
   
5. Heat the butter in a frying pan then sautee the sliced fresh mushrooms for 3-4 minutes or until they are golden.
   
6. With your last ladleful of stock add in the mushrooms. The rice is ready when the grains are cooked but still have a little bite and the rice is loose but not soupy. Add in the Parmesan. The risotto will become rich and velvety.