Come, dine with me

A roast chicken is a delight.  So easy, always good, often better cold the next day.  Serve it with roast potatoes or mashed potatoes, a salad or cooked greens…whatever takes your fancy. A good gravy if it is hot, some pickle or mayonnaise if cold.  Easy to cook, always a success, a great way to feed guests.

The other day, a blog post popped up for a recipe for Roast Chicken with Cumin and Coriander over at My Favourite Pastime.  I instantly thought that is what I want to do for Sunday dinner, change up my usual method of roast chicken for something with new flavours.  What I forgot though was 1) my pestle and mortar have disappeared and 2) my husband probably wouldn’t like me using his coffee bean grinder for spices as 3) the grinder I used to have was left behind in Denmark.  Oh I also thought I had coriander seed but didn’t.

So, that will have to wait for another day, and instead I went back to my usual flavouring – lemon and fresh herbs. Cut up a lemon, put it inside the chicken, push some herbs in between the skin and flesh, squeeze the juice of the other half of lemon, dot with butter and put in the oven. Sometimes I add garlic to the roasting pan too. Roast for 20 minutes per 500g plus 20 minutes at 200C.  My oven tends to be on the hot side, so I usually take 5-10 minutes off. The main thing is that the juices should run clear to make sure it is cooked, and equally, that you don’t overcook it.  Experience is of great help here!

And what to have with it?  This week we had roasted kumara, courgettes and carrots with a couple of left over baby potatoes with it. Topped with good olive oil and rosemary from the garden and a sprinkling of smoked garlic salt, it made for a good accompaniment.

The pictures of the golden, crispy chicken I took ended up looking like something from a bad 1970s cookbook.  Instead, I have borrowed the picture below from an Edible Communities post from October 2015, which is worth reading for different takes on the roast chicken.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @blof678.  As for Twitter….am totally inactive these days.  If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com.