Wednesday, March 23, 2011

A roast chicken and other stories

Last night I ran home from work into the jaws of a bitter southerly wind. My glasses got so wet I eventually took them off and relied on my feeble eyesight instead of peering through rain-soaked lenses. It was grim.

But when I reached the front door it was like the sun had suddenly come out. I could hear the Small Girl 'reading' Each Peach Pear Plum above the comforting hum of our turbo-charged convection oven. The Boy Wonder had gotten home early and worked his magic on a chicken - all I had to do was have a shower (while simultaneously stopping the Small Girl from stuffing my running kit down the toilet) and dinner would mysteriously appear. This must be what it was like having an old-fashioned wife. Winter won't be so bad if this happens every night...


Instant Roast Chicken
The Boy Wonder does all the bird roasting in our house. He learned about spatchcocking from Nigella and instantly took to it, probably because it meant the chicken cooks much faster. We eat free-range cornfed chickens, but not very often, so this is a real treat. This is more or less how he does it.

First, turn on your oven to about 200C. Next, spatchcock your chicken. In other words, cut out the backbone ("from bottom to neck" is how the BW puts it). Do this with a sharp knife or a pair of poultry shears. Throw the backbone away (or use it for stock). Put the chicken in a roasting dish and push down to flatten it out a bit.
Cut a lemon in half. Tuck one half under the chicken, squeeze the other half over the top. Slosh over a bit of soy sauce and a bit of olive oil. Be generous.
Next, cut a whole bunch of potatoes in half and throw them in the pan with the chicken. Do the same with a few carrots and a few onions (peel these first). Add unpeeled garlic cloves, fresh herbs, other vegetables as you have them. ("It was too wet to get any thyme or rosemary and I just thought, bugger it, I'm not going out there again," said the cook.)
Grind salt and pepper over everything. Put the whole tray in the oven and cook for about an hour, or until juices run clear (this may take 10 mins longer, depending on your oven). Give it a shake occasionally to ensure  vegetables are soaking up all that lovely chicken fat and getting nice and crisp. Get wife to check chicken is cooked. Get Small Girl to wash her hands. Pour self a beer. Realise there are no green vegetables. "It's ok," says your wife. "There's lots of vitamin C in potatoes." 
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7 comments:

  1. How lovely to come home to a house smelling of roast chicken! You're one lucky lady. It's almost worth the 24hr flight to pop over for leftovers although I doubt you'd have any! x

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  2. Could you possibly send Boy Wonder round to mine so he can teach Hubby a few tricks???

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  3. aww.. how very nice. Love the smell of roast chicken and love eating it too. hehe. I wish I have someone to cook for me.
    Potatoes are healthy indeed.

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  4. Mmmmm. Love your writing - makes me laugh but also lets me imagine being there. (Apart from the running through a storm - I can't imagine myself doing that far too lazy these days!)

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  5. i do love it when dinner gets cooked for me, love a man in an apron :)

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  6. And just the other day the worker requested roast chicken. I may well have to attempt it - although having burnt both pizza and popcorn in the past week I'm not sure of my chances!

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Hello - thanks for stopping by. If this was real life I'd make you a cup of tea and open the biscuit tin, but in lieu of those things, let's have a chat anyway...