The Cottage Smallholder

If you write about food a lot it is easy to keep on trying to develop new recipes rather than improve on old favourites. So last week I thought that I’d play with Emma’s garlic roast chicken recipe. This wonderful pot roast recipe produces a succulent, browned chicken with an excellent sauce. Perfect as a roast and the leftovers are suculent and full of flavour.

I bought a ‘small’ (1.75 kilos) chicken from Fred Fitzpatrick (our favourite butcher – Exning Road, Newmarket). His chickens are free range and by far the best that I have tasted locally. They are also a lot cheaper than the free range supermarket ones.

We used Emma’s chicken recipe but changed three main things.

1. We put the chicken, breast down in the stock for the first hour. Turning it over for the last half an hour to brown.
2. We added 2 chopped medium hot de-seeded chillies to the garlic and stock. This tenderised the chicken as it cooked and created a sparky looking pale red piquant sauce.
3. We left out the streaky bacon as I had forgotten to buy some. This was a stroke of luck as it allowed the other flavours to mingle into a light and fragrant sauce.

It looked and tasted delicious. The chicken flesh was imbued with the delicate flavours of thyme, lemon, garlic and chilli. It would make a great easy supper party dish – the pink sauce looked classy.

Piquant pot roast chicken with chilli, garlic and thyme recipe (would feed 4-6 hungry people)

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken (approx 1.5-1.75 kilos)
• 1 head of garlic
• 300-600 ml of hot vegetable stock. We used Marigold. (depending on the size of your casserole. There needs to be enough to cover at least half the bird)
• 5 sprigs of thyme
• 1 unwaxed lemon to stuff the cavity
• Ground black pepper

Method:

Set the oven to 210c (190c fan-assisted)

1. Put the lemon in the cavity of the chicken and place the chicken (breast down)in a small casserole dish.
2. Break up the head of garlic into cloves and scatter them around the bird (do not peel these).
3. Tuck the sprigs of thyme around the bird.
4. Pour on the hot stock. Season with ground black pepper.
5. Put a piece of foil under the lid of the casserole to insure a tight fit. Place the casserole in the centre of your preheated oven.Cook the chicken covered for an hour.
6. Remove the chicken temporarily from the oven, turn over the chicken and return the chicken to the oven for another 30-40 minutes (lid off to brown the breast). Top up the juices with more hot stock if necessary.
7. When the chicken is cooked, remove it to a warm place. Cover the chicken with foil and some towels to relax whilst you prepare the garlic sauce and cook your vegetables.
8. Remove the garlic with a slotted spoon. Squeeze out the garlic from the skins (discard skins) and using a hand blender whiz the garlic, chillies and thyme into the rest of the juices. Thicken the sauce with a little cornflour. Pour into a warm jug to serve with the chicken.