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Spanish Chicken for a returning son



Joe is back from Uni on a reading week, a pleasure for all of us and a perfect opportunity to cook something new.

I have been meaning to make this recipe from Jamieoliver.com for a while.

The chicken came from Dales of Hampton Court and the chorizo from waitrose .... you want the cooking chorizo not the cooked stuff by the way. You will find it in the deli section.

The only thing that went wrong was that I used parchment paper instead of greaseproof and as a result the potatoes got a bit stuck. Next time I might even try it with no paper just cooked in a good non-stick roasting pan.

ed. Recipe now amended following a bit of a burnt chorizo problem for my lovely PA Sophie .. sorry Soph

We also added a few oven roasted vine tomatoes and as suggested served it with a big bowl of rocket salad and some lemon/olive oil dressing

The tastes were great and it certainly filled us all up, even a slightly starved and skinny student.

Ingredients

• 1kg potatoes, peeled and cut into 2.5cm dice
• 4 lemons
• a handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 x 2kg free-range organic chicken
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 300g good chorizo sausage
• olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

Method

serves 4

First preheat your oven to 220ºC/425ºF/gas 7, then place your potatoes with 2 of your lemons into a small pan of water and boil for 5 minutes. Drain, and then prick the lemons all over with a knife. (The reason for doing this is that you are going to put them inside the chicken and their wonderful juices will be released while cooking. They will burst with flavour and fragrance, and the heat from the lemons will help the chicken to cook quicker from the inside as well as making it taste and smell amazing.) Remove the parsley leaves from the stalks and put to one side. Stuff the chicken with your hot lemons and the parsley stalks. Then season the chicken and the potatoes with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper, and slice your chorizo at an angle, 0.5cm/¼ inch thick.

Get yourself an appropriately sized non-stick baking tray. Place the potatoes into the centre of the tray, then place the chicken on top . Drizzle with a little olive oil. Cook in the preheated oven for around 1 hour.
After an hour sprinkle with the chorizo and a little of your chopped parsley and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes.

While the chicken and potatoes are cooking you can make what the Italians call gremolata, by finely chopping the zest of your 2 remaining lemons and mixing it with the chopped parsley and garlic. Season lightly and toss together to create a really fragrant seasoning-type garnish. Remove the tray from the oven, take the chicken out and put to one side to rest. Give the potatoes a shake about and put them back in the oven for a few minutes to crisp up.

Carve the chicken and divide between 4 plates, with the potatoes. The potatoes will have taken on the smoky paprika flavour from the chorizo, so if there is any juice left over in the tray, pour every last drop over the plates. When you sprinkle over the gremolata it will hit the hot juice and smell fantastic. You're going to love this one! A rocket salad goes really well with it.
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