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.
◦
Ten roast chicken recipes with Ten chicken fact
