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Lunch with the Osbornes .... not Sharon and Ozzy.Chicken, fennel, pancetta and red onion with Bill's lemon roasted potatoes

We had a delightful lunch last weekend with Andy and Julia ... it was made all the more pleasurable by the fact that they brought Olly (just back from Afghanistan) and Rupert (just back from Cheltenham) and the dogs (just back from a walk)
No Ally as he is somewhere in Australia and no Gus (Falmouth) or Joe (St Maarten) but of course we did have Martha (not gone anywhere yet!) and Phoebe
Olly regaled us with stories about Afghanistan peppered with military acronyms and we all had a very very nice time.
We started the meal with the Moro Aubergine and red pepper dip and some Hummus (elsewhere on this blog)and continued with an improvised version of the Chicken with fennel pancetta and red onion recipe.... the improvisation was in the form of the replacement of rosemary with thyme ..... seemed to work.... and the addition of Lemon roasted potatoes to add a bit of bulk which we thought that four blokes( including one Marine ) might require
This is also one of those meals where you can just bung it in the oven and apart from a bit of turning you can leave it and get on with enjoying yourself

Chicken

Ingredients

2 large chickens cut into 8 pieces each

10 garlic cloves

4 tablespoons thyme leaves

3 red onion

6 fennel bulbs

Extra virgin olive oil

250 gms smoked bacon (or even better pancetta) cut into 1cm pieces or lardons... or buy them ready chopped if you're feeling lazy

500ml white wine

Method

Peel and finely chop the garlic and chop the rosemary.

Peel the onion, and cut the onion and fennel into eights.

Cut the pancetta into 1cm pieces.

Preheat the oven to 200C/ gas mark 6.

Mix the garlic and thyme with salt and pepper.
Put the chicken into a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and add the garlic mixture. Turn each piece over to coat thoroughly.

Put the chicken in one layer in a roasting tin and scatter the fennel, red onion and pancetta over.

Drizzle with olive oil and roast for 1/2 hour.

Add the wine, roast for further 20 minutes. Raise the heat to 225C/gas mark 9 for the last few minutes to brown.


Lemon-roasted potatoes

750g waxy potatoes (I used charlotte), unpeeled,cut into thick slices
Juice of 1 lemon
125ml chicken stock
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2tbs olive oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Place all ingredients for potatoes in a bowl and toss until potatoes are coated in the mixture.
Spread on a non stick baking tray. Bake for 45 minutes turning regularly.
They will be done when the potatoes are lovely and brown and a little bit 'sticky'

Pile on top of the chicken on the biggest plate you've got

Stand back and let them all get stuck in
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