We watched the first episode of Nigella's Kitchen at the weekend, which got me ridiculously excited because it included an oven-free way of cooking a whole chicken. I have really missed using bigger cuts of meat so the 'praised chicken' (not a fan of the name) was perfect. The meal was really nice, very easy, made the flat smell wonderful, and was best eaten with mustard as Nigella recommends.
This recipe could be improved in a number of ways; the one that comes most readily to mind is the water that the chicken is poached in. This could be made into a less watery, more flavoursome sauce. If I had the funds to buy more alcohol (oh, Korea, why do you make my wine so expensive?) I would have used more wine and less water. A stock rather than plain water would also have helped. Almost anything could be substituted for that 'water' part of the recipe!
Oh, and most excitingly of all - I now have a chicken carcass in my freezer, waiting for some friends before it is turned into stock =)
Stovetop Whole Chicken
Serves
1 chicken (730g)
1 garlic clove
2 potatoes
2 sweet potatoes
Big glug of white wine
Water
Italian herbs
Parsley
Seasoning
2 servings rice
Chopped the garlic, and the potatoes into batons. Heated the garlic in oil on a low heat. Broke the chicken's back to flatten it and sawed off its feet. Added the chicken breast-side-down to the hot pan and cooked for about five minutes while I struggled to open the wine. Turned the chicken over, added the wine and the chicken feet, and turned the heat up. Bubbled for a minute or so. Added the potato batons with lots of Italian herbs and parsley, poured in enough water to almost entirely cover the chicken, and turned the heat up to its highest setting. When it reached a boil, I put the heat back down to very low and covered the pan with tin foil. After leaving it for about fifty minutes, I put the rice on. At the 1 hour mark I checked that the chicken's juices were running clear and turned the heat off, leaving the lid on. Ten minutes later Tom shredded the chicken and the rice was ready.
