I Feel Like Chicken Tonight

Yesterday I bought a huge free range organic Sherwood White Chicken from my local butchers and simply roasted it in the form of Lemon Chicken from Feast: Food That Celebrates Life by Nigella Lawson.  

This has to be one of my favourite ways to roast a chicken, especially with side dishes of sticky herby roast potatoes and cauliflower cheese, also adapted from the recipes in Feast: Food That Celebrates Life.  

I also like to put some finely chopped herbs and butter under the chickens skin, which I think imparts a lovely flavour, keeps the breast meat super moist and helps lend a lovely brown colouring to the skin.  The lemon fragrance that comes through is very subtle but certainly noticeable.

The sticky potatoes are almost a cross between mash and roasties, now I obviously can’t speak for you but that is my idea of potato heaven.  Fluffy but crisp, lightly flavoured mouthfuls of deliciousness.  Yesterday I omitted the garlic as I didn’t want to overpower the flavour of the chicken, seeing as I’d bought a rare breed bird.  

Cauliflower is one of my favourite vegetables, and I thought I’d make the most of the one from my organic vegetable box delivery by submerging it in a blanket of velvety, luscious creamy cheese sauce.  The way this cauliflower is cooked allows for it to soften but remain firm and not in the slightest watery, which is what can easily happen if it is simply boiled and then coated in the sauce at the end.

 

However with nearly half a chicken left I had to do some planning, chicken sandwiches for lunch the following day just wasn’t going to cut it here.

After a couple of hours contemplation I decided upon a risotto and where else to turn when in need of this kind of inspiration and advice but the authoritative Giorgio Locatelli’s  Made in Italy: Food & Stories, with its twenty-four pages on this topic alone.

I just love the tome that is Made in Italy: Food & Stories, it’s such an authoritative and informational book. Full to the brim of advice but in a friendly easy to read way, with pages dedicated to topics such as risotto, pasta, cheese and olive oil alongside a lovely background to Giorgio’s life in Italy and his work as a professional chef.  Many of the recipes shown are in fact signature dishes that are served in Locanda Locatelli his Michelin starred restaurant in London. 

I based my risotto around Giorgio’s Nettle Risotto but instead of nettles I added wild garlic (from the lovely Violets) along with some shredded chicken, pure comfort food bliss.

 

Oh and I bet those of you unfamiliar with UK commercials of the 1990′s are wondering what the title of this post is all about. Well put simply Chicken Tonight was a brand of jarred sauce which well was totally disgusting in my humble opinion but the advertisment used to make me laugh a great deal, please do bear in mind that I was only around 12 years old when these were around.  

Here’s a clip:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ9M7bsx10I&hl=en]

Recipe:
Sticky Roast Potatoes: 

• 500g small new potatoes 
• 4 whole garlic cloves (or more to taste)
• 100 ml olive oil 
• Juice 1/4 lemon
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon lemon thyme and rosemary

1. Bring a pan of salted water (and lemon juice) to a boil, and cook the potatoes for 30 minutes. 
2. Drain, and put back into the dry pan. 
3. Peel the garlic cloves and put them in the dry pan with the potatoes lemon zest and herbs. 
4. Gently squash the potatoes and garlic so they are cracked and split. They can be done ahead up to this point and left in the pan but leave the lid off, so they don’t get watery. 
5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. 
6. When the oven is hot, pour the oil into the pan and leave it to heat up for 10 minutes. 
7. Carefully tip the potatoes into the hot oil and cook for 15 minutes. 
8. Turn the potatoes over and cook another 15 minutes until browned and crispy. 
9. Serve immediately.

 Cauliflower Cheese:

• 1 large head of cauliflower
• 2 bay leaves
• 110g butter
• 2 teaspoons english mustard or dijon
• 50g flour
• 500 ml milk
• 275g strong cheddar, grated
• 50g strong cheddar, grated for sprinkling

1. Cut the cauliflower into small florets and and put in a saucepan with cold water and bay leaves. Sprinkle with salt. Bring to a boil, then drain and then refresh with cold water. Let the water drain in a colander. Then put the cauliflower in an even layer in an ovenproof dish.
2. Preheat your oven to 220 C. 
3. To make the cheese sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan and then whisk in flour and mustard, and cook over a gentle heat for 5 minutes. Whisk in the milk off of the heat, and then put it back on the heat and keep stirring until it becomes thick and begins to bubble.
4. Sprinkle in the 275 grams grated cheese and stir over heat until it has melted into the sauce. 
5. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower in the dish, and scatter remaining cheese over the top. Cook for 20 minutes or until the cauliflower is hot and bubbly and the cheese has browned slightly on the top.