The Sausage Dog

Last week, one of my friends, Thea and her boyfriend Tom, came over for dinner. On a Monday. I had completely forgotten that we had dinner plans, but once I realised, I decided to whip something up anyway. I can’t believe what I achieved in less than 2 hours, it was nothing short of incredible.

So really, this post is a few recipes that I put together to make a meal for 4 people. We were stuffed by the end, so I would say these recipes probably make enough for 5-6 comfortably.

I had to dash off to the shops to get my chook, and a few other things, by the time I got home, it was 5.15pm, and we sat down for dinner at 7pm. Some might not even attempt a roast chicken with 1 hour and 45 minutes, but this recipe really is foolproof. The chicken was beautifully tender, retained its moisture, had a lovely browned skin and had a gorgeous lemon-y flavour. The mashed potatoes were rustic but decadent.

All in all, a very simple meal, but totally packed in flavour, which really is the hallmark of my style of cooking. You won’t find fussy Masterchef dishes in my repertoire, I am just all about make awesome home style food that you cannot wait to tuck into.

I hope you all enjoy this meal, I know we did  🙂

Total Prep and Cooking time: 1 hour and 45 minutes (it’s all about the time management and multi-tasking)

Source: Adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Perfect Roast Chicken Recipe, tweaked for preference – http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/perfect-roast-chicken/

Serves: 5-6 people

Ingredients

Roast Chicken

1 x 1.6 kg higher-welfare chicken

5 cloves of garlic

olive oil

1 lemon

1 bunch of fresh mixed herbs , such as, thyme, rosemary, bay or sage

Salt and pepper

Stuffing

250g breadcrumbs

Lemon rind

Butter

1 medium red onion

2 cloves of garlic – fine dice

Mixed herbs

Salt and pepper

toothpicks

Mashed Potato

1kg carisma potatoes

125g unsalted butter

1 cup grated tasty cheese

50ml full cream milk

Lots of salt and pepper

Accompaniments

Broccoli

Crushed chilli

butter

10 baby carrots

Mild olive oil

Honey

Salt and pepper

Instructions

Roast Chicken + Stuffing

1. Remove the chicken from the fridge 30 minutes before you want to cook it, to let it come up to room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to 240°C.
3. Prepare your stuffing – halve and then cut your red onion into very thin slices.
4. Grate the skin of your lemon to get the lemon rind. Place breadcrumbs, sliced onion, finely diced garlic, lemon rind, mixed herbs and salt and pepper in the bowl.
5. Cut up about 80g of room temperature butter into tiny cubes and mix into stuffing.
6. Prepare your chook, trim off excess skin, then place chicken on the board with the breasts facing up and the cavity facing you. Carefully slip your fingers in between the skin and the breast and start tearing out the connective webs so that you are left with a lovely skin pocket over the breast. Be very careful not to pierce/break the skin of the chicken.
7. Peel 4 cloves of garlic and crush them with the flat of the knife to release the juices.
8. Take your lemon, pierce the skin with a knife multiple times, then put the lemon in the microwave for 40 seconds. Stuff the fresh herbs, garlic and finally the lemon into the cavity of the chicken.
9. Take your stuffing mix, and start stuffing it into the chicken skin pocket you have created. Use the toothpicks to trap the stuffing when finished.
10. Drizzle the chicken with oil and season well with salt and pepper, then rub all over the chook.
11. Prepare your roasting tray. Line with baking paper, drizzle with oil and salt and pepper. Place your chook on the tray, breast side up.
12. Place the tray in the oven, then turn the heat down immediately to 200°C and cook for 45 minutes.
13. Pull chook out of the oven and cover with aluminium foil to stop the skin from burning.
14. Return chook to oven for another 35 minutes.
15. When the chicken is cooked, take the tray out of the oven and transfer the chicken to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so.

Mashed Potato

1. Big pot, cold water + salt, put all potatoes in with the skins on. Bring up to the boil, keep checking potatoes to test if they are cooked, if your fork pierces easily through a potato, this means it is ready.
2. Turn off the heat, drain all the water, in the same pot, put in butter, grated cheese, milk and salt and pepper. Mash away until it becomes very creamy and mash-like.

Accompaniments

1. After you have put your chook into the oven, get your carrots boiling to soften them.
2. Once the carrots are par-boiled, drain them, and lay them on a flat baking tray lined with baking paper so that all of them are on a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil and honey, and crack some salt and pepper over them. Make sure you shake the tray to ensure carrots are evenly coated.
3. Pop these into the oven with your chook and keep checking them.
4. Add more honey as you go along if you feel the need, this will help with the caramelisation.
5. As for the broccoli, I like to cut off the florets, put some butter in a pan, in with the broccoli florets, fry for a little bit, then add a bit of water just to lightly steam the broccoli in the pan. Then I add salt and crushed chilli to give it some zing.