Roast Chicken on a Bed of Greens with Yummy Potatoes

Keeping on with the chicken theme of this week
It was our Granddaughter’s 14th Birthday and Grandma was on dinner duty
A chicken dinner seemed to tick all of the boxes

Amongst recipes I have saved over the years, I found this idea from Angela Hartnett,
a British Chef I really admire
This is a dish that can be eaten at room temperature

Potatoes with Chicken, sitting on a salad of Green Beans, Leeks and Red Pepper

 Very pretty and particularly tasty

Crispy skin, was not important on the chicken this time, just wanted lovely juicy breasts
But I left the skin on, to self baste the breasts
Removed it for serving
Perfect
So prepare the Salad first

600g/1lb 5oz green beans
16 baby leeks
½ tsp Dijon mustard
50ml/2fl oz cider vinegar
250ml/9fl oz olive oil
2 banana shallots, finely chopped
2 tsp finely chopped fresh tarragon
4 tsp finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 red pepper chopped

Place a large pan of salted water over a high heat and bring to the boil.
Add the beans and leeks and cook for 2-3 minutes,
then drain and refresh in iced water.
 Place the mustard, vinegar and 250ml/9fl oz olive oil into a bowl and whisk to
 combine.
Slice the beans and leeks into three on the diagonal and add to the dressing.
Add the shallots, tarragon, parsley and red pepper
Then season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Set aside

Now the Chicken 
4 large chicken breasts, skin on
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C
Season the chicken breasts, both sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Into a roasting pan and into the oven for about 12 minutes
Remove and test with a skewer or sharp small life
Just push it half way through the breast
Hold for 10 seconds
Remove
Put it to your lips, it should be hot
And the juice should run clear
If not quite done… back into the oven for another 3 minutes
Remove and set aside to rest for a few minutes

Drain the salad, keep the dressing
Slice each breast into 4 pieces and place into the dressing that is drained
from the salad
Lay out the salad on a large serving platter
Place the dressed chicken slices on top

Pour any remaining juices over the top
Done

Trishie’s Potatoes
Now you can make this in advance, in fact the more ahead, the better
Get those flavours infused

Take 4 large Potatoes peel and chopped into medium cubes
Bring to the boil in salted water and simmer till they are almost cooked
Drain and pop into a oven dish
1 packet of French Onion Soup Mix or  in this case I used this
Roast Garlic with Tarragon Flavouring, which worked in very well with the tarragon flavour in the chicken

Plus 200 ms cream

Sprinkle the potatoes with the soup mix,
Season with a little salt and pepper
Funnily enough the French Onion soup mix is not overly salty
so it needs some extra seasoning
Pour the cream over
Toss well and cover
Let sit for at least an hour or even longer
so that the potatoes can absorb those flavours and the cream

Pre-heat oven to 200C
Cook till cream is absorbed and potatoes are golden and crispy
Probably take about 30 minutes
Season with a little extra salt and pepper

Once again. you can do this earlier and just pop back into a hot oven for 5-10 minutes,
Just to heat through

Serve
Here is our beautiful Mia singing at her Granddad's funeral just 3 weeks ago
So proud of her

Cheers Mia, Happy birthday

Dinner for One - Family Favourite Roast Chicken

Sometimes you just need a Roast Dinner and when you are living alone,
I guess it seems like it's not worth doing, but I assure you it is.
These days of course you can buy any old cut of meat to feed one, with usually some interesting leftovers for the next day.
Baby lamb rumps, or in this case a Chicken leg...

It is so simple, quick prep, into the oven and plonk down in front of TV with your favourite tipple. while it cooks away
A virtual one pan cook, Less dishes you say?
Yes, indeed

Recently I have been cooking my chicken, as I learnt from Thomas Keller of
The French Laundry, fame.
Purely season and cook
Lovely crisp skin, very moist chicken, just the way I like it
I will post his instructions for a whole chicken, shortly

The Vegetables.
Just cut them into small cubes, everything will cook at the same time

I had some chicken fat in the fridge, extra chicken flavour, so I used that, but normally I would use Olive Oil

So for my Roast Chicken I used

1 Chicken Maryland (leg)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 a capsicum any colour, cut into cubes
1 red onion large chop
Olive Oil or Fat of your choice
Sea Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Frozen Peas

Pre-Heat your oven to 200C
Add a good slosh of Oil to your roasting pan
Pop it into the oven to heat the fat
Throw your prepared vegetables into the tin
Season with S & P
Toss well


The idea with the chicken, is to keep it dry and let it cook in its own fat and juices
So pat the leg dry, with a paper towel
Season it well , both sides with salt and pepper
Place on top of your vege

Into the oven
Cook for 25 minutes
Remove and toss the vege around in all of the chicken juices
and shuffle the chicken so that it is flat on the pan with all the vege around the sides
so that they will all brown
Back into the oven for another 10 minutes
Slip a sharp knife or metal skewer into the leg, the juices should run clear
Remove and let rest for about another 5-8 minutes.

Meanwhile while they are resting
Cook your frozen peas in the micro wave
Should take about 2 minutes on high
Throw into the pan and mix

Serve, This chicken was so moist, I ate every single little bit.
Divine
Yes I did have leftover Vege, They are going to be in a pasta dish.

Perfect Roast Chicken - Thank you Thomas Keller

Every morning,  recipes arrive into my email box, from the Bon Appetit/Epicurious Website
So every morning I scan down to find something of interest.
One that caught my eye, was

The Perfect Roast Chicken, from Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Cookbook

I’d love to reprint it, as I love his descriptions,
but I may get in trouble
with copyright.
So here in my words, is how to Roast a Perfect Chicken
Courtesy Thomas Keller

Take one 1.5Kg Free Range Chicken
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chopped thyme (optional)


Some important points to note
First you must dry the chicken completely...
Inside and out
The idea is, the less the chicken steams, the drier the heat,
The better the chicken

Season the chicken well inside, with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Secondly: Truss the chicken
You don't have to be an expert to truss
just make sure the wings and the legs are close to the body,
this makes a great shape and the chicken can roast evenly

Pre-heat your oven to 220C/ 450F
Rain sea salt over the chicken and grind some pepper over the top
You should see those flakes on top

Place the chicken into a roasting pan and place in the oven

Do not touch it, just let it cook for 50-60 minutes
Check after 45 minutes don't want to overcook it
Best way to test for “doneness”
Just poke a skewer into the leg
Hold there for about 10 seconds
The juices should run clear
Put the skewer to your lips
it should be hot
Not quite right,
back into oven for a few more minutes

Remove from oven
Place thyme (if using) into pan and baste the chicken
Baste with the thyme and chicken juices

Let sit on cutting board for 15 minutes to rest

Remove the twine and break up into pieces
The aroma is divine, it’s so hard not to rip into it and eat it all by yourself

So unselfishly,
Dish out good portions to your guest/guests
Serve with a simple green salad, maybe some simple boiled potatoes
So so simple in fact!!!

Guaranteed a huge success

n.b. Thomas Keller slathered the chicken with butter, before serving, but I did find that made the skin a little flabby
So in my wisdom. Serve as is.
I want some right now