The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Andrew roasting potatoes

Yesterday, I sent Danny into town with £5 and carte blanche to “buy something tasty for supper”. You may agree that it is a bit of a risk to ask a man to choose my kind of treat (prawn with spaghetti, scampi and chips, a take away Indian meal for two for a fiver) but I didn’t really care what he brought back as long as he did the cooking.
After poking around the meal deals at Waitrose, he plumped for chicken. A whole chicken. Not my idea of fast food, I must admit.
“I just fancied chicken and chips,” he explained apologetically.
Initially he intended to spatchcock it and got the cleaver out from the back of our packed kitchen utensil drawer. Then he noticed the cooking instructions on the packaging. 40 minutes at 200c or 180c fan oven.
“That seems very fast,” he said, “I normally cook any chicken for at least one hour. Maybe an hour and half minimum when I wrap it to keep it juicy. So it may take a little longer. Let’s experiment with Andrew.”
Andrew  is our new halogen oven. He is very, very good but a bit of a learning curve as regards timings and temperatures. So far Danny has mastered roast lamb, roast beef and roast chicken with roast potatoes. One essential element  when roasting meat is the collar or extender ring.
We had a really simple chicken and chips supper. The chicken tasted like the deep-fried version that you get in a chip shop. Excellent as one of Andrew’s good points is that he can cook a succulent chicken or joint with no extra fat.
This is Danny’s recipe and method. In the end it took 60 minutes.
Simple roast chicken and chips
Ingredients:
1 small chicken 1.5kg
McCain’s oven chips for two (frozen)
Method:
Place the chicken, breast side up, on the bottom rack at 200c for 20 minutes.
Then turn it over, breast side down for a further 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, on your worktop area, arrange the frozen chips on the top rack.
Turn the chicken over and slit the thighs open with a sharp knife.
Insert the top rack in the halogen oven (it may just rest upon the chicken) and place the extender ring on the top of the bowl.
Turn the temperature up to 225c and Cook for 10 minutes.
Turn the fattest chips over.
Warm some plates in your conventional oven at approx 80c
Cook the chicken and chips for another 10 minutes at 225c.
Switch off the halogen oven. Take out the chips and transfer them to the plates in the warm conventional oven. Leave the chicken inside the halogen oven to relax for 10 minutes.
Carve (or pull apart, if you prefer) the chicken and serve.
Simple buttered peas or petit pois go well this dish.