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