FLOWER POT KITCHEN: BEST EVER ROAST GARLIC CHICKEN

12 Apr 2020

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.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.