Sunday 16 June 2013

Roast chicken dinner

Roast chicken dinner. It ain't the most complex of meals, but it can be one of the most delicious, in a homely and comforting way. Get lots of veggies on the plate and it's healthy too.

To be honest we don't have roast chicken all that often, I will only buy free range and a whole chicken can be quite expensive (and large) just for the two of us. And yes, I know that we can get a few meals out of one chicken, but sometimes I just don't have the time and well, sometimes, I just can't be bothered with the faff.

Well, this weekend I had a tenner for our food and as we both ate leftover meals from the freezer on Saturday (hare ragu and pea & ham soup) this meant that I could buy something fairly decent for lunch today. I was struggling to decide what to go for when a friend gave me a huge bag of fresh herbs from her garden along with some radishes. This inspired me to do a herb roast chicken with a herb stuffing and sautéed radish tops (along with roast potatoes and carrots).

I essentially followed this recipe for the chicken except I minced the herbs with the garlic and a little olive oil and smeared that both under, and over the skin. I also used this recipe for a veggie stuffing. Radish tops were gently wilted in butter with garlic. Potatoes were roasted (with garlic and rosemary) and carrots were simply boiled. And, thanks to a weekend of dog sitting (and having to cook a chicken for his dinner) I had juices ready to go for gravy (I know, I know, but if you saw the size of my kitchen, you would understand).



Beautiful! The herbs came through in the chicken really nicely and the stuffing is only just a little bit morish (although I may experiment and put nuts and dried fruit in next time).

We had a leg and thigh each which was more than enough and after picking the carcass I've got plenty of leftovers for the week ahead. And, to make the absolute most of my chicken I'm currently boiling the carcass up (with the one from yesterday) along with a carrot, an onion, a few celery leaves and some of the herbs. It smells gorgeous and will make a lovely stock for soup later in the week. I've also managed to salvage two bags of stuffing and a bag of gravy for the freezer!


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