CLAY POT COOKED TANDOORI CHICKEN

The most succulent chicken ever...

Cooking in a clay pot is one of the most glorious ways to guarantee the most juiciest meat and a thick sumptuous stock sauce from all the juices from the chicken, this Tandoori chicken is beautifully combined with the yogurt, herbs and spices.  This is a simple one pot cook which is packed with flavour that will have you wiping your plate clean with your flat breads!

Prep time 20 minutes / Marinate time 30 mins - 24 hrs / Cooking time 45 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 4)

Don't panic... you do not have to make your own Tandoori spice mix, for me I love the alchemy sensation of making my own spice mixes, you can buy Tandoori spice mix from a good deli store, if so just skip to adding the spices to the marinade instructions part below.

4 chicken quarters

1 tbsp ghee

1 large onion puréed 

2 cloves garlic puréed 

5 cardamom pods, seeds only

1tsp cumin seeds

tiny pinch ground cloves

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

2 tsp coriander seeds

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/4 ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

2tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1tbsp tandoori masala powder

1lrg pinch of salt

2" piece of ginger grated

6 cloves of garlic grated

1/2 juice of a lemon

300g Greek yogurt

First make the marinade for the chicken, in a dry frying pan gently warm up the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, place in a pestle and mortar or a coffee grinder and pound to a powder, next intake a saucepan add the ghee and on a medium heat add the puréed onions and garlic, cook for 5 minutes until softened, add the ground spices and all the dry ingredients mix well.  

Marinade

Next place the yogurt in a bowl and add the 6 cloves of grated garlic, ginger and the lemon juice and all the other mixed spices, mix well and coat the chicken quarters thoroughly with the marinade, leave in the bowl, place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, overnight is even better.

Take your terracotta crock pot, tandoori oven or chicken brick and pour the chicken and marinade into the pot with a little water, place the lid on and cook for approx 45 minutes at 180 degrees for the first 20 minutes and 160 degrees for the rest of the time (25 mins), check that your chicken is cooked through before serving, to check pierce the chicken in the fattest part with a skewer then place the tip of the skewer on your upper lip, if it’s hot the chicken is cooked.

When you take the lid of your tandoori pot the aromas will be outstanding, serve with fluffy rice, flat breads and a side of yogurt with some Harissa paste rippled through.

Flat Breads

Ingredients 

500g 00 caputo Italian flour

10g Himalayan sea salt 

50g extra virgin olive oil 

15g yeast

320g water

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and either by hand or by machine with a dough hook mix for seven minutes, then dust a little flour over the dough mix and gently form into a ball, cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave in a warm area to prove for 1-2 hours until doubled in size if you want to use immediately, then other options are leave to prove slowly in the fridge for 24hrs, this is what I do as it gives me much more control over time and usage, this will keep for 48hrs in the fridge ready to go when you are, you can also freeze any left over dough at this stage, then when ready to use remove from the freezer defrost and once up to room temperature use as you would fresh.

 Take a oversized golf ball piece of dough, dust your work top with a little 00 flour, roll into a ball and roll out a large disk no bigger than your skillet, heat to a hot heat, place the flat bread in the pan and cook for one and a half minutes on each side, best served warm but are almost as good used later the same day, to use the following day dip the flat breads in water and pop in a pre heated oven foe 3-5 minutes and Ta-Da almost as good as fresh, brilliant.

PERFECT RICE 

Cook your rice, quick, easy and perfect every time, take two cups of rice (serves 4-6), rinse, add to your pan with four cups of water, do not stir, pop on the lid and bring to a gentle simmer for 8 minutes, do not take the lid off at any point, when the time is up remove from the heat and as fast as possible pop in the butter, lid back on, do not stir, leave for 10 minutes to finish steaming, when you do take off the lid you will have lots of steam holes which confirms you have perfectly cooked rice, fluffy and light, fork through the butter and serve.

BUBBLE AND SQUEAK

The Best Ever...

This is always a winning brunch with my family and friends, a slightly deconstructed bubble and squeak, gorgeous crunchy fluffy fresh or left over roast potatoes cooked in schmaltz’s (chicken drippings) served with garlic buttered pan seared kale, spinach and asparagus then topped with a soft poached egg, finished off with a sumptuous dijon mustard and gooseberry vinegar sauce.

Prep 5 minutes / cooking 20 minutes

(Serves 2)

Ingredients 

4 Albert rooster roasting potatoes or left over roast potatoes

2 tbsp schmaltz or goose fat

4 eggs cracked into individual bowls

1 bunch kale striped and sliced

2 large handfuls fresh spinach

10 spears asparagus 

2 cloves garlic peeled and chopped

25g butter + 1 reserved tbsp

1 dash olive oil

Himalayan sea salt and fresh black pepper 

Mustard Sauce

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp vinegar, apple, white wine or gooseberry

1 pinch white pepper

If using left over roast potatoes place in the oven to heat up with some left over chicken fat for 20 minutes at 180 C / 356 F.  If making fresh roasts then peel and cut your potatoes in to four, bring a pan of water to a rolling boil and part boil the potatoes until just fork tender, (10 minutes), drain, season with salt and leave to steam dry for 5 minutes.  Pre heat your oven to 200 C / 392 F.  Place your roasting tray in the oven with the chicken or goose fat for 3 minutes, then add the potatoes, toss to coat in the hot fat.  Roast in the oven for 30 minutes turning once half way through until golden and crispy all over.  

Ten minutes before the potatoes are ready:

 Bring a large deep pan of water to a gentle simmer ready for the poached eggs then at the same time heat a pan medium hot for cooking the kale, spinach and asparagus, add the olive oil and butter, add the garlic and asparagus, sauté for two minutes then add the kale and spinach, cook on the heat for one more minute, remove from the heat toss in the reserved butter.

Next make the mustard sauce by placing all the ingredients in a bowl and combine.

To poach the eggs add the vinegar to the simmering water and gently whisk to create a mild vortex in the centre and then pour in the eggs one at a time from the bowls, the eggs will swirl around gently with the vortex allowing the egg white to surround the yolk to create a perfect poached egg.  Cook gently for around 3-5 minutes depending on how runny you like your yolk,  

You can check the egg by removing with a slotted spoon and gently prodding to see how wobbly the egg is, the firmer the bounce back the more cooked the egg is.  Remember the poached egg will continue to cook for a minute once it is taken from the water and served.  

Get Ahead Eggs

You can poach your eggs ahead of time, once cooked, plunge the poached eggs in to a bowl of iced water to stop the cooking process, when your ready to serve gently place the eggs back into a pan of just simmering water for one minute to warm back through.

To serve place the kale, spinach and asparagus in the bottom of a dish, drizzle a teaspoon of mustard sauce over the greens, pile high with the crispy roasted potatoes, top with the poached eggs and finish with a further drizzle of the creamy mustard sauce and parsley, season to taste with salt and pepper, enjoy.

BEST EVER ROAST GARLIC CHICKEN

This food takes me straight back to Fuengirola, Spain in the very very early 1980’s (age 7ish) where my family would holiday, we would always look forward to Angels garlic rotisserie chicken, my memories are of the most juiciest and succulent chicken I ever ate, this memory of that chicken still lives with me today (age 47😀)!

This recipe is adapted from a old fashioned 1970’s spin on the French Classic 40 cloves of garlic, to me the old classics are the best! This is were future and innovation come from!  It is such a outstandingly great dinner, the lightly garlic roast chicken with white wine and herb infused stock liquor is a wow factor that is off the chart, served with seriously infused toasted croutons or glorious roast potatoes to soak up all that gorgeous juice, this is a show stopper dinner...

Prep time 10 minutes / Cooking time 2kg Chicken 1hr 20mins 

Resting time 20-30 minutes 

Ingredients 

(serves 4-6)

2kg Organic Chicken 

40 whole cloves garlic unpeeled

2 carrots roughly chopped

2 sticks celery roughly chopped

2 onions quartered unpeeled

2 sprigs rosemary

6 sprigs thyme

8 stems parsley

250ml dry white wine

200ml water or homemade chicken stock

Olive oil

Himalayan sea salt 

Black pepper

Pre heat your oven to 200 C / 392 F,  place the carrots, celery and onions in the bottom of a casserole dish, put a sprig of thyme, parsley and rosemary along with 6 cloves of garlic in to the cavity of the chicken, add the remaining herbs to the casserole dish, place the chicken in to the casserole dish, rub with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, sprinkle over the garlic cloves and that’s it, pop on a lid and place in the oven until the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced or when your food probe reaches 64C / 147 F.  If you want crispy skin then remove the lid for the last 30 minutes.  Once cooked leave to rest for 30 minutes.

The Stock Gravy

After 20 minutes of resting the roast, strain off the cooking liquid in to a saucepan, put all the whole garlic cloves to one side, bring the gravy to a rapid boil and reduce by one third, take off the heat, add a knob of butter and taste for seasoning, that’s your gravy done.

Garlic Croutons 

Slice your sour dough bread really thin, drizzle with a hint of olive oil and bake in the oven for 10 minutes turning over half way through while the chicken is resting

To Serve

Take the garlic cloves and generously squeeze out and spread the garlic purée on to the croutons, then dip these gorgeous decadent croutons into the rich stock gravy and enjoy.  I also serve this meal with quartered savoy cabbage braised in chicken stock and tossed in butter.

That’s dinner done enjoy.

EASTER HOT CROSS BUNS

Glorious spiced fragrant hot cross buns, lightly toasted and topped with lashings of Irish creamy butter, a wonderful way to celebrate Easter.  I have never made hot cross buns before but was surprised how easy and un-complicated these were, I love working with dough and I knew these were going to be good as the dough was gorgeous and light to handle.  These only take 10 minutes to make and 3 x 1hr proves I followed/tweaked a little from Paul Hollywood's good food recipe

10 minutes hands on / 3 x 1 hour proves / Baking 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

(makes 15)

500g 00 flour

10g yeast

1 tsp salt

100g caster sugar

300ml warm milk

80g butter melted

1 egg beaten

1 apple grated

Zest of one orange

1 tsp heaped ground cinnamon

100g dried fruit

25g mixed peel

100g plain flour

water

1 tbsp apricot jam

Place the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a mixing bowl, warm the milk and butter together until the butter has melted.  Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the warm milk and the beaten egg, using a wooden spoon bring the mixture together to form a dough and knead for 5 minutes.  Place in a oiled bowl and cover the top with oiled clingfilm, not touching the dough, place in a warm place to prove for 1 hour.  Take the dried fruit and place in a bowl, add a fragrant teabag and pour over some hot water to soften the fruit.

Once 1 hour up mix in the cinnamon, apple, orange zest, mixed peel and dried fruit, (drain off the tea) and leave to prove again for another hour, the dough will be slightly wet and sticky that is good.

After this second prove, dust your worktop with flour and tip out your dough, divide the dough into 15 equal ish size balls and place on a greased baking tray with space around each bun to allow room for expansion, cover with oiled clingfilm loosely and again prove for another hour.

Now to apply your cross, mix the flour with some water to make a thick paste, fill a pipping bag and pipe on the cross.  Now they are ready to bake, 200 degrees for 18-20 minutes.  Once cooked glaze the top with some warm apricot jam, saw in half and pop under the grill to toast, load with way to much butter and I like to pop back under the grill for 30 seconds again to get the mound of butter melting from the top as the bottom will have soaked into the bun making these the best ever hot cross buns, eat immediately.