Chicken goujons/nuggets

They are as juicy as nuggets anyway.

Skin off free range chicken breast
Very well seasoned plain flour
Well beaten eggs
Fresh white breadcrumbs
Groundnut oil

For mayonnaise (suggestion):

1 yolk
1/2 grated garlic clove
Juice 1 lemon
1 tsp smooth dijon
1/2 tsp fine salt
White pepper
Half plain olive oil and half rapeseed oil

(Note: Quite nice if you have a food processor to be able to make the breadcrumbs first then use it again to make the mayo)

Slice the chicken into 1cm bits straight across the breast.  Actually this will result in kind of kidney-shaped bits which is fine.

Toss well in the flour, ensuring all areas are covered and shake off excess.  Then in egg, allowing excess to flow off, then crumbs, then fry in 0.5cm of pre-heated groundnut oil, turning once.  Control the temperature so the browning rate is right for the chicken to be cooked through.  Give them a 3 minute rest after cooking on kitchen paper and season with fine salt before serving.

The key is to not over-cook them, but you can get the hang of it as you go by eating the first ones while cooking the later ones.

Chicken pasta soup stew

Vague recipe, sorry.

Roast a chicken.  Allow to cool whole.  Observe how nice it looks after having rested for an hour!

Saute onion, celery, carrot, adding dried oregano and garlic towards end.

Add boiling water and a chicken stock cube (or chicken stock).  Simmer 15 mins.  Blend (pulse a few times) half of it .  Return all to pan.  Add cream and lemon juice.  Add pasta.  Simmer 5 mins.  Add frozen peas or other green vegetables.  Simmer another 5 mins.  Add cut up chicken.  Simmer together another few minutes.  Taste and adjust seasoning.

Chicken, mushrooms persillade and potato puree

Nice main course to follow a salad of some kind.

Serves 2

For the chicken:

2 skin-on chicken breast fillets
Vegetable oil
Salt
Pepper
Squeeze of lemon juice

Pre-heat the oven to 175C.  Marinate the chicken briefly in the other ingredients as it comes to room temperature.  Place a small roasting tin over a flame until hot.  Pour in a tablespoon of oil then lay in the breasts skin side down.  Leave for a good 7 minutes for the skin to crisp.  Turn over, season, and place in the oven for 7 minutes.  Remove to a board to rest for a further 4 minutes (timings all approximate).  Cut each fillet into slices on the board.  Doing this skin side down is easier.

Spoon all but around 1tbsp of fat from the tray.  Add a splash of water, some salt and pepper and another squeeze of lemon juice then after plating up everything else simmer hard over a hob to reduce to a small amount of sauce.

For the mushrooms:

1 tbsp. olive oil
10g butter
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp. finely chopped flat leaf parsley
Squeeze of lemon
Oyster mushrooms (or wild mushrooms of any kind)
Salt and pepper

Melt the butter in the olive oil in a frying pan.  Wash and dry the mushrooms.  Place in the pan and sauté over a medium heat with a pinch of salt until their liquid is reabsorbed and they are just tender but not firm.

To make the persillade, wash and shake dry the parsley and pick the leaves off the stem.  Chop finely.  Cut the stem end off the garlic clove.  Crush lightly for a first time so the skin can be removed.  Half the clove lengthways and remove any green sprout inside - there may be none.  Then crush again fully, which will make it easier to chop.  Finally chop both parsley and garlic together.

Again, when everything is ready toss the mushrooms in the persillade over the heat for less than a minute, add a squeeze of lemon juice and some black pepper, and serve.

Potato puree:

Think I've given this before but here it is again!

Wash, peel and dice potatoes into 2cm cubes.  Boil thoroughly in salted water for 15 minutes.  Drain, return to the heat to drive away moisture, then mash when dry like this.

In a small pan place some full fat milk, butter, a skin-on fully crushed garlic clove and seasoning to taste including heavy amounts of (preferably) white pepper.  Warm this through to melt the butter and infuse with the garlic flavour.

Having removed the garlic from the liquid, add the liquid to the mash in stages until the right consistency is reached, mashing further after each stage and finally beating with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes.  Taste for salt as this will make a big difference.

Roast chicken and new potato purée

Roast chicken and new potato puree

The idea here was to make a really simple plate of food.

1.3kg free range chicken
6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
Generous sprigs of thyme
1 glass dry white wine
Scant juice 1/2 lemon
Olive oil
Butter
Salt and pepper

Bring the bird up to room temperature in advance.  I didn't untruss it but I did wash it, dry it and cut off excess fat with scissors.

Place the bird in the tray you are going to roast it in.  Pour on some olive oil then season well with salt and corsely ground pepper.  Use your hands to roll it in the tray and smother around the seasoning.

Roast for 15 minutes at 200C.  Remove, add a knob of butter to the tray.  When it's melted baste the bird with the mixture of fats simply with a spoon, spoon some fat into the bird's cavity, then spoon off excess fat from the tray.  Add the wine to the tray then throw in the garlic cloves and thyme, possibly tucking it under the chicken a little.

Roast for a further 30 minutes at 175C, basting half way again and possibly turning the tray around in the oven to ensure even browning of the skin.  Turn the heat down to 160C for a final 15 minutes and check for done-ness by prodding the thigh with a skewer or carving fork, to feel if it's tender and see if the juices run clear.

Remove the bird to a plate to rest for ten minutes.  You don't need to cover it with foil and you don't want the steam to gather on the skin really either.

Tilt the tray and spoon off all but around 2 tablespoons of the fat.  You can use this in dressing the salad if you are serving one beforehand (google Daniel Rose I thank him for that tip!).  Add the lemon juice and extra salt and pepper to the tray then place over a hob to simmer briefly and scrape together the juices.  This actually doesn't take long at all so you might as well do it at the last minute when the chicken is carved.  Or you can always add a tablespoon of water if it's over-reduced.  If serving the gravy in an open jug it's nice to use a spoon to help serve out semi-mixed fat and juices.

I served with a new potato puree which didn't quite work I think because I didn't scrape them well enough! But the recipe is available here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/spuds-you-like-1092310.html

Chicken with broccoli and oyster sauce

Adapt as you see fit but the broccoli soaks up the sauce really nicely.

Serves 4 at least

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut across the grain into pieces.
1 head broccoli, florets cut off and halved if necessary, tough outer part of stem removed by cutting into the base with a knife then peeling it back, then stem sliced
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced diagonally, thickly
1 bunch asparagus, bases cut off then cut into 1.5 inch lengths
1 small tin bamboo shoots
4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp cornflour
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp japanese rice vinegar (or any vinegar)
2 tsp soy sauce
3 tbsp oyster sauce
Ground pepper

Place the chicken in a bowl with the cornflour, fish sauce, vinegar and 1 tsp of the soy sauce.  Use your hand to mix around then leave while you blanch the vegetables.

Get a large pan of water boiling.  Add the vegetables in the following order, assuming the heat is high and the water returns to a simmer fairly rapidly.  Carrot slices, two minutes later the broccoli stem and florets, 2 minutes later the asparagus stems then 1 minute later the asparagus tips.  Drain 30 seconds later.  The vegetables should still be firm at this stage.

Get the oils very hot in a large wok and stir fry the chicken until cooked though and no longer raw-looking.  You don't need to colour it.  Add the garlic and stir.  Add the vegetables including the bamboo shoots, the remaining 1tsp of soy sauce and the oyster sauce and stir-fry/cook for 5 or 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender but still with some bite. 

Finish with a grinding of pepper, taste and adjust the sauce if needed, and serve with rice.

Poached chicken with mushrooms

Serves 4

For the poaching:

1 excellent free range chicken
1 head garlic, sliced through horizontally in half
1 onion, washed, unpeeled, quartered (the skin will give the stock a nice golden colour)
1 carrot, washed, peeled and sliced
1/2 tbsp sea salt
1 tsp peppercorns
Large bunch of parsley stalks, tied together with cooking string if you like
Cold water to just cover

For the sauce:

Large quantity of mushrooms of your choice.  Morels would be superb, and if dried would need to be reconstituted in water for 20mins.  Dried or fresh they are pretty hard to find.
1 glass white wine
30g butter
175ml double cream or creme fraiche


Instructions:

Assemble the poaching ingredients in a snug pot and bring to a simmer.  Do not boil it hard.  Skim off the grey or white scum that appears on the surface with a spoon into a bowl to pour down the sink.

Poach very gently, with a few bubbles rising to the surface every second, for 45 minutes or until the legs feel loose in their sockets.

Lift out the chicken with two large forks onto a plate and leave in a warm place.  Using a slotted spoon or other draining implement, lift out all the vegetables etc from the liquid in the pan and throw away.

Boil the stock hard to reduce to half its original volume, or taste until concentrated.

While the chicken is poaching, sweat the sliced mushrooms (don't slice morels if you are using them) in the butter until they have re-absorbed most of the liquid they give off.  Then to finish the sauce, add the glass of wine to the mushrooms and reduce until syrupy.  Add several ladels of the reduced chicken stock and the cream then reduce until nicely thickened.  Taste the sauce when reduced and adjust the seasoning or with lemon juice.

Skin the chicken and cut the ends off the legs using poultry shears.  Remove the tendon attached to the drumstick with scissors.

Joint the chicken into 2 drumsticks, 2 thighs and 2 breast portions.  Cut each breast in half so each of 4 people can be served 1 piece of breast and then either a drumstick or a thigh.

Serve with some sauce poured over and let people serve themselves to rice and vegetables.

You will have lots of lovely stock left over.

Poule au pot

I pot-roasted a chicken the other day and it worked so well I thought you should know about it.  I think it's because the legs poach and the breast steams.  I had some stock lying around but am certain the recipe would work without it.  In fact it can be made in a reasonable time period with items procurable from a 'Tesco Metro'. Yippee.

Poule au Pot

1 chicken, around 1.6kg.  Or an old pheasant.
1/2 savoy cabbage, shredded
6 new potatoes, halfed if large
4 slices streaky bacon, rolled and pinned with a cocktail stick (in the absence of nice fat bacon pieces)
4 cloves garlic, bruised lightly, peeled and halved into two flat pieces
A few sprigs of thyme
1 cup of stock or water
1 glass white wine
lemon juice (optional)
25g butter
1 tbsp light olive oil

In a large, lidded casserole, melt the butter with the olive oil over a medium heat and brown the seasoned chicken on all sides for 15 minutes (total).  Try not to rush this stage.  Remove.

Add the bacon, fry until coloured then remove.  Add the garlic, fry in the fat until coloured, then again remove.  Add the cabbage, season, and saute again for a couple of minutes to wilt.  Add the white wine and simmer briefly to drive off the alcohol, scraping any bits from the bottom of the casserole into the liquid.

Add back the chicken and nestle it down.  Surround with the potatoes, thyme and bacon, add the extra liquid, cover the chicken with a piece of baking parchment or tin foil to trap the steam, put the lid on the pot and simmer on the hob for 10 minutes before transferring to an oven.

Give it 1hr 20mins at 150C, or maybe longer if the chicken is bigger or old (ie. killed when it was an older bird).  Finish with the lemon juice, optional or depending on what wine you are drinking, and enjoy.

Roast chicken

Whatever the situation you find yourself in, I firmly believe you should be able to produce an excellent gravy for any number of guests when roasting a chicken.  A few pieces of meat from a cheaper cut, or just some onion, carrot and celery, surrounding the main event will always help, the pan scraped and deglazed with a little white wine and perhaps with a quarter of a chicken stock cube added to boost things if required.

You will however have more control by going a step further with some chicken wings or drumsticks and stock veg roasted in a separate tray in the oven.  While the chicken is resting this tray can be blasted, and the contents turned over, to ensure a thorough stage of browning is reached.  And with the extra surface area you can be certain of a good amount of rich gravy for your guests.

Indeed if you did want to make up a batch of dark chicken stock, and it is an extremely handy thing to have around, then you can take the principle another step by roasting some chicken carcasses separately to a big tray of vegetables, since they brown at different rates, before assembling all in a big stock pot for a lengthy simmer.  This is very satisfying indeed.

So there is no stress!

Roast Chicken

1 free range chicken.  The Rhug Estate chickens available from Partridges in Sloane Square are the best I've ever had (Raymond Blanc agrees so there)
1 lemon
50g butter
Salt
Pepper
1 bay leaf
bunch thyme
1 garlic clove, unpeeled but crushed under a knife blade

Bring the chicken up to room temperature by taking out of the fridge early in the day.  If the butter is straight from the fridge then melt it gently or soften in a microwave, then pour over the chicken in a roasting tray, smothering it inside and out with your hands.  Get somebody else to season the chicken generously all over with salt and pepper while you turn the bird over.  This avoids getting your salt and pepper shakers covered in butter.  You can wash your hands now!

Halve the lemon, squeeze the juice over the bird and place the halves inside the cavity along with the thyme, bay leaf and garlic clove.

Roast for 25 minutes in a fully preheated oven at 220C.  Reduce the heat to 180C and roast for a further 30 minutes for a small chicken (1.6kg) to 60 minutes for a big chicken (2.4kg).  Let the chicken rest for 15 minutes before carving.  If you like add a small splash of wine when turning the heat down, particularly if you think things could burn.  But it's quite nice to roast things in fat on a tray.

Gravy

The ideal for this is getting a bag of wings from a butchers, simply because they are very cheap and he will be able to chop them up for you.  It does work perfectly well however with drumsticks or thighs from a supermarket that you can rougly cut into pieces yourself.  There's no need to cut through the bones.

4 chicken wings (or 3 thighs or drumsticks)
1 large onion, unpeeled but washed, roughly chopped
4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled but again flatted slightly
1 stick celery, roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
large bunch of thyme
flour
vegetable oil
200ml dry white wine

Place the first seven ingredients in a very large tray.  Pour on a tablespoon of veg oil and mix thoroughly with your hands.  Season with salt and pepper then roast in the oven while you are roasting your chicken.  I would always get this gravy tray into the oven before the chicken as you want to brown it thoroughly then simmer a while before the chicken is ready.  Roast this mixture until all is thoroughly browned, turning things over every now and then.  Pour in the wine and return to the oven to reduce and caremelise things.  Place over the heat, add some water and scape up all the browning residues on the base of the pan. Transfer everything to a saucepan, add water to cover and simmer for around 20 minutes before draining through a colander into a bowl.  Spoon off excess fat.

The next stage is up to you.  You can either reduce the sauce to concentrate the flavour, during which process it will thicken slightly, then serve from one of those gravy jugs whose spout pours from the base of the jug, to avoid oil-slicking your food.  Or you can cook equal parts of butter and flour together in a separate pan for 1 minute, then pour over the liquid, having been reduced slighly less, simmer and whisk for a few minutes, resulting in a thickened sauce which will have extra flavour from the emulsified fat in it.  Whatever you feel like, really.  Add the lemony juices from the chicken tray to either version, of course, tipping up the chicken to get the maximum out.

Chicken sauté with mushrooms and cream

This is the sort of thing everyone should know how to cook.  I have left the quantities to you, but be generous with the mushrooms and cream, and smell the garlic you have to see how strong it is.

jointed chicken pieces (your preference as to which)

mushrooms

garlic

lemon juice

white wine

double cream

freshly chopped parsley

Season the chicken pieces.  If you are using breast as well as leg and thigh, you will need to remove the breast from the pan once it is cooked through, adding it back at the end, so it stays juicy.

In a heavy based sauté pan, melt some butter and vegetable oil until the butter stops foaming, then sauté the chicken pieces over a moderate to high heat, so they are well browned on all sides.  Do it batches and you should only need to turn the pieces once or twice.

In a separate very large pan or casserole, salt and sauté the sliced mushrooms over a moderate heat, driving off the moisture and giving them a little colour.

Remove the excess fat from the chicken pan, then add the mushrooms to that pan on the heat.  Add your finely chopped garlic and stir around.  Before the garlic burns, pour in a glass of dry white and scrape the pan while it bubbles.  Add the lemon juice and cream, and some water if you need more liquid.  Cover and simmer for 45 minutes (remove the breast after 5, adding back at the end, if using).

Finish with the parsley and black pepper, taste and adjust for salt, lemon and pepper.  Serve with steamed basmati rice and greens.