Ten roast chicken recipes with Ten chicken fact

Red Junglefowl by InAweofGod'sCreation

I will be launching a series of chicken baked recipes by this week, the idea is to share my favourite chicken baked recipes, I considered that cooking chicken in the oven needs very little preparation and tastes great. Also every recipe will go with a fact I just learned watching the BBC program The Private life of the chickens. Also given the abuse of the chicken food industry, for all the recipes I used organic free range chicken from Abel&Cole, Waitrose organic and my local butcher, even if there is no real proof that organic food is better than non-organic I used for ecologic and welfare reasons.
How to Cook chicken. Chicken is a kind of meat like pork where bacteria are present throughout the meat; you can eat for example rare steaks because the bacteria are present outside of the meat. For this reason is very important that you always check if your chicken is cooked, to do this you must check always the more thickest part, in a whole chicken is between the breast and the leg; where shouldn’t be any pink meat.
Ps: In most of the recipes I used chicken thighs, but feel free to change for chicken breast. Also you remove the skin I recommend you to drizzle a few olive oil for avoid that the chicken pieces get dry.

Fact 1: In the planet are 7000 species of birds, we only domesticated 7 for food. The domestication of chicken started 8000 years ago.

Recipe 1: Saffron Chicken with potatoes. 

Saffron Chicken with potatoes

500g charlotte potatoes (halved) 800g chicken thighs 2 red onions (in wedges) 150g cherry tomatoes on the vine 100g Serrano ham (in small pieces)

3 tbsp. olive oil 150 ml sherry 1 garlic clove (crushed) 3 rosemary sprigs Pinch saffron strands. Oven at 200ºC. 562 kcal /4 serving

1.       Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper.

2.       Put the potatoes in a pan and cover them with cold water, add salt and bring to boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.  Finally drain the potatoes.

3.       Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the season chicken skin side down for about 3 minutes and then turn over for about 2 minutes more. Now the thighs should be golden.

4.       Add onions, garlic, and sherry and stir very well, add the saffron. Remove the pan to the heat.

5.       Now put everything in a roasting tin, with the potatoes, ham, tomatoes on the vine and rosemary.

6.       Cook for about 35 minutes, shaking the roasting team every 12 minutes for wet the chicken in their juices. Ready to serve.

Fact 2: It Is believed that the domestication started in Thailand, the Red Junglefowl  in South Asia is one of  the more  ancestral population that still  exist in the world.

Recipe 2: Rioja Roast Chicken.

1 large chicken ready to cook 1 red onion (chopped) 8 garlic cloves (sliced) 80g Spanish chorizo (diced and skinned) 400g can chopped tomatoes 1 or 2 dried red chillies

5 tbsp. olive oil 1 organic chicken stock cube 250 ml rioja red wine 1 tsp. dark muscovado sugar 1bay leaf. Oven 180ºC – 400kcal / 6 serving Casserole with room for the whole chicken

1.       Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pan at medium low heat, add the onion and garlic, and cook until browned and softened.

2.       Add the chorizo, cook for 5 minutes and add the stock cube. Stir everything.

3.       Transfer all the ingredients from the pan to a casserole pot and add the wine, tomatoes, sugar, bay leaf and chillies over the chicken, and put the lid on or cover with aluminium foil.

4.       Cook the chicken for 1 hour. Remove the lid and brush the skin with olive oil, and season. Return the chicken to the oven but without covers it for another hour.

5.       When is ready, remove the chicken from the oven and let rest in a plate or board.

6.       Now in the casserole you have a lot of juices, perfect to make the sauce. Remove the bay leaf and chillies, and put the juices in a pan at medium heat. Bring to boil and reduce by half.

7.       Serve pieces of the chicken with your favourite sides dishes, and pour some of the sauce over the chicken.

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Ten roast chicken recipes with Ten chicken fact