Category: chicken

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chicken coriander cumin food paprika product review sugar

sledgehammer chicken

I’ve cooked a few whole birds on the barbecue before, such as southeast spatchcock and slathered with BBQ sauce. But with getting a drum-style barbecue this year I could try grilling a whole one for the first time.

This chicken came about from trying Sainsbury’s new chicken roaster. It’s a metal stand which holds the bird in a vertical position while it roasts. Assembled it’s rather phallic, but once you look past that you have a metal prong over a tray which all hooks together. The pieces come apart and you are able to fold it away to pretty much nothing. You’re cooking a chicken to a similar principle as a beer-butt chicken which I’ve always wanted to try but just don’t like the taste of beer (the quickest my face goes from happy to sad is noticing there’s onion rings on the menu, then spotting they’re beer-battered onion rings. Horrid yeasty aftertaste, yeeuch).

I rubbed the meat all over with a sweet spice mix and awkwardly impaled the chicken on the spike. And now it looked like it had waltzed off Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer video, hence the name.

I started mine off on the BBQ with the lid down, but after 70 minutes the bird had barely started to warm up and it just wasn’t feeling right. I brought it into the oven and finished it off there. The flavour was great and it had taken on some smoke so not all was lost. Carving into it the flesh was moist and tender.

Is the roaster worth it? I’m not quite convinced. You could go down the beer can route on the BBQ, and in the oven it takes up a lot of space being vertical. Being able to put liquid underneath (I used white wine) means a natural mist is retained going up into the cavity but the skin stays crisp. That said as long as time allows I’ll be sticking to my preferred Heston technique. The roaster is a fun gadget, but not essential.

Thanks to Sainsbury’s for sending me the roaster to try out.

Sledgehammer chicken (serves 4 – 6):

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Pinch of chilli powder

Olive oil

1 medium chicken

Splash of white wine

  1. Mix the spices together and blend with enough olive oil to make a gloopy paste. Smear all over the chicken and make a real mess of it. Impale the chicken on your chicken roaster and fill the tray with wine.
  2. Light the BBQ. Once the flames have died down and there is a thin coating of white ash over the coals, place your chicken into the BBQ and close the lid. Roast there for 2 – 3 hours until the chicken is 70°C at the thickest part (always use a probe thermometer, it’s the only way to be sure). Or if your BBQ isn’t quite hot enough, transfer to a 180°C oven. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving. I served mine with potatoes roasted with chorizo.
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bbq chicken cumin food oregano paprika salt sweetcorn

southeast spatchcock chook with booze-braised sweetcorn

For Mrs. Spud’s birthday and the weather hitting decent heights at last, I wanted to come up with a BBQ featuring some special treats. I thought about cooking a whole chicken and grilling some sweetcorn.

Steven Raichlen’s Barbecue Bible

Thankfully experimenting with the barbecue is really taking off in this country. We’ve always lacked the predictable weather and sustained dry spells to really explore but we’re gradually catching on. The explosion of diner-style and burger / rib joints, with even Jamie Oliver getting in on the act is further proof of the growing interest. In particular it’s worth listening to our American cousins who pretty much have nailed down this cuisine as their own. With dozens of regional variations in cut, technique, rub, baste and flavouring there’s plenty to study. If you want to know more about American BBQ I recommend checking out Steven Raichlen, and I strongly recommend his Barbecue Bible book which is packed with great inspiration. It’s from this book that my chicken recipe started to take shape.

all rubbed, ready for the fridge

I’ve had fun with dry-brining before. The meat juices are drawn out by the salt element, the flavourings dissolve in the liquid that breaks down muscle proteins and get reasorbed back into the meat. The repetition of this process leaves the meat wonderfully seasoned and keeps it juicy, so I was definitely going to use something similar here. Pulling together some of my favourite spices to combine into a rub I left the chicken overnight. In honour of my corner of the country I’ve called it Southeast style. Spatchcocked to cook reasonably quickly and evenly, and allowed to scorch on the BBQ it gave a smoky, sweet flavour with spicy depth. Really tasty. And my top tip for grilling white meat? Get one of those spray bottles from a garden centre. Fill it with apple juice, and with one squirt you can cool off flare-ups and leave behind a sweet glaze into the bargain.

I paired it with some grilled and braised sweetcorn. With undertones of Bourbon and meaty to boot, my first attempt at barbecuing corn was one I’ll be doing again.

Southeast spatchcock chook with booze-braised sweetcorn (serves 4 with plenty of leftover chicken):

1 medium chicken

For the rub:

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon brown sugar

½ tablespoon dried oregano

½ tablespoon smoked paprika

Grated zest of ½ a lemon

For the sweetcorn gravy:

500ml chicken stock

1 tablespoon BBQ sauce

10g butter

20ml Southern Comfort

4 corn-on-the-cob

  1. Free the chicken from its packaging, remove any string and open the chicken out. Turn it over so the breast is face-down, and use a strong pair of scissors to cut down the spine. You can then turn the chicken back over the other way and press down firmly on the breastbone until you hear a sickening crunch. Use two skewers, each corner to corner to hold it open. Combine all the salt ingredients and rub all over the bird. Leave in the fridge uncovered overnight.
  2. The next day, light your barbecue and once the flames die down and the charcoal is covered with white ash place your chicken over the grill. Turn and rotate often to cook evenly. It will take between 40 – 60 minutes to cook depending on about a hundred variables. You can only be sure if it’s done with a meat thermometer reading 75°C. I recommend the Heston branded one, but any will do.
  3. While the chicken cooks make your sweetcorn gravy. Combine all the ingredients and bring to a simmer (you may find this quicker and easier to get this started on a regular hob). Dip your sweetcorn in the gravy and transfer the corn and your pan to a hot BBQ. As it starts to char and pop you’ll want to turn it, but just before you do give it a dip in your gravy and then back on the grill. Repeat until charred on all sides, then place them in your gravy pan and cover for 5 minutes to cook through. Strain off the liquor to serve on the side, carve the chicken and serve with a panzanella and potato salad.
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chicken food polenta

oven fried chicken

I previously named Leon 2 as my book of the year, so to get Leon Family & Friends for my birthday this year was a real treat. The slightly madcap layout, the “everybody pitch in” attitude, the waves of nostalgia splashed with modern food trends is pure LEON. It’s difficult to read this book and not smile, and I’m certain it’ll get a place in this year’s best cookbooks of 2013 list.

This chicken recipe is absolute dynamite. All the fun of crunchy, sleazy chicken but baked rather than fried to assuage (some of) your healthy fears. Pretty simple too, you just need to put it in the fridge the night before then bake the next day.

Oven fried chicken (serves 6):

For the marinade:

280ml buttermilk

½ tablespoon English mustard

½ tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons salt

3 dashes of Tabasco

10 – 12 chicken portions

For the coating:

100g flour

100g polenta

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

  1. Stir all the coating ingredients together and then drown the chicken pieces in this mixture. Cover and leave to marinate overnight.
  2. The next day, preheat the oven to 180°C. Combine all the coating ingredients. Shake off the excess marinade and then roll the chicken in the seasoning. Get a wide pan on a medium heat and cover the base of the pan with oil. Brown the chicken on all sides, and then roast in a baking tray over a wire rack for 40 minutes until cooked through. Serve with lemon wedges, mashed potato and greens.
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breadcrumbs broccoli chicken coriander cumin food noodles oyster sauce

chicken katsu with oyster noodles

I do love panko breadcrumbs. The ridiculous extra crunch the Japanese breadcrumbs give is so satisfying. So I was really looking forward to chicken coated in panko when I got home.

Until I realised I didn’t have any eggs. The typical pane station is flour, egg, breadcrumb. But with no eggs what was I going to do? I figure all it needed was something for the breadcrumbs to stick to. So why not the chef’s friend cornflour? My only problem was avoiding that gluey taste that cornflour can give, so I added some ground spices to mask the flavour. Seemed to work pretty well. To the point in fact where I don’t see the need to waste an egg on breadcrumbing again!

This is an easy to rustle-up, easy to multiply dinner that is a great combo of crunchy chicken and slurpy noodles. You could use any sauce you like with the noodles – even a splash of soy would do.

Chicken katsu with oyster noodles (serves 2):

2 chicken breasts

1 teaspoon cornflour

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Milk

A little plain flour

Panko breadcrumbs

4 noodle nests

1 litre chicken stock

Large handful of broccoli florets, cut into bite-size pieces

A pinch of chilli flakes

1 carrot

A pinch of sesame seeds

  1. Get a large pan with shallow oil over a medium heat, and a saucepan for your noodles over a high heat.
  2. Lay out a sheet of cling film and dust with salt and pepper. Put the chicken on this and lay another piece of chicken on top. Using a rolling pin, bash the chicken to approx 1cm thin.
  3. In a bowl combine the cornflour, cumin and coriander. Add milk until you get a thick, sludgy paste. Set up a breading station, with one bowl of plain flour, your cornflour sludge, and the breadcrumbs. Dust the chicken with flour, dip in the cornflour paste and then in the breadcrumbs. Make sure they are well coated.
  4. Lower the chicken into the oil gently. When done on one side flip over until done, then drain on kitchen paper.
  5. Get the chicken stock on to boil in the saucepan and add the noodles. After 3 minutes or when the noodles are done, drain them and rinse well with cold water.
  6. Add the broccoli back to the noodle saucepan, add the chilli along with a splash of water. Peel the carrot and use the peeler to shave into strips into the broccoli. Jam the lid on and cook fast. After about 3 minutes the broccoli should be tender, so add the oyster sauce and toss well. Cook for a further minute and then add the noodles back to the pan, tossing well to mix. Serve in a bowl topped with sesame seeds, and top with the sliced chicken.
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