Staying in is definitely the new going out for me in 2014!
As anyone who know's me will know I'm all about saving money these days. It sounds really boring and sensible I know and it does kind of go against the grain for me. I've always been a spender rather than a saver. My dad used to say my money burned a hole in my pocket and I think that's a really good analogy. When I was growing up, while my brother and sister would save their pocket money up for a rainy day, I would have spent it within a couple of hours of getting it. Every week. Without fail.
I was once given a limited edition £5 coin for Christmas and am ashamed to say I spent it the same week in Mcdonalds! Oh how times have changed!!
These days I'm trying really hard to be sensible with my cash. And when you want to spend time with friends eating and drinking, that usually means staying in is the logical option.
I cooked for 3 of the girls from my office last night and we had 3 courses, washed down with plenty of prosecco and wine. I felt like I could really treat my friends but spent less than a tenner/ person. We would have spent that each at least if we had gone out for dinner and drinks.
I must apologise for the lack of pictures again. The thing that usually happens when I cook is that its all fine until I have a glass of wine. then for some reason I always end up behind schedule. This happened again last night. The chicken just took forever to roast and we didn't end up eating until quite late. By the time it was ready we were all so hungry we just dived in and I didn't take as many pictures as I could have. I do make this quite often so I will take some better ones and re-post this the next time I cook it.
This is a great dish to make when your having a night in with friends (I refuse to use the phrase 'dinner party!') because all the prep is done before hand. Its really easy and you just bung everything in the oven. There is also hardly any washing up as there's no simmering or frying anything. Bonus!!
The dish is inspired by a Gordon Ramsey recipe I saw him cook recently on his latest show. The one where he's cooking in his home with his kids- can't remember what its called.
So that's where I got the idea for a chickpea stuffed chicken. However this is my own take on it and it has a few differences. The main one being that Gordon mashes his chickpeas before serving. I've tried it this way but for me, I prefer just to serve the chick peas with chorizo as an unadulterated side dish.
The 2 most important things to make the chicken amazingly succulent, juicy and flavourful are firstly to use a good quality free range chicken. The one I used last night was a corn fed one from sainsbury's. OK they cost a little more but this one was around £8 and fed four people with plenty of leftovers. Not bad value really.
Secondly is once the juices and fat start to collect in the roasting tray, be sure to baste the chicken at least 2 or three times during the last 30-40 minutes of cooking. This stops the chicken drying out and makes the meat taste of all the delicious flavours of the stuffing. Yum! In fact its making me hungry again just thinking about it!
Here's the (very easy) recipe:
Ingredients:
1 large free range chicken
1 tin of chick peas (garbanzo beans if your American)
Half a chorizo ring
half a red onion
1 lemon
drizzle of olive oil.
1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds.
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (fan oven).
Finely chop the red onion and chop the chorizo into small pieces about the same size as a chick pea.
Mix the onion, chorizo drained chick peas and the juice of the lemon, season with salt and pepper and stuff into the cavity of the chicken. You have to really pack it down to fit it all in but if the chicken is big enough it should all fit.
Plug the erm... hole, with the 2 squeezed lemon halves and tie the legs together to prevent the stuffing coming out.
Rub the top of the chicken with the olive oil and sprinkle the chilli flakes and over the top.
Cover the chicken with foil and cook for around 1 hour and 40 minutes. (check the cooking instructions or with the butcher to make sure about the cooking time so be on the safe side).Take the foil off for the last 40 minutes but keep basting the chicken to stop the spices from burning and keep it really juicy.
When the chicken is cooked (juices run clear when you piece the thickest part of the leg with a skewer). Take it out and leave to rest for 5 minutes.
Take out the lemons and reserve them for serving. Spoon the chick peas out of the chicken into a serving bowl. Spoon some of the chicken juices from the roasting pan over them and mix.
Cut the chicken up into pieces and serve on a large serving platter and squeeze the remaining juices and pulp out of the cooked lemon over the chicken. Spoon some more of the chicken juices over the chicken. Just enough to keep it moist and stop it from drying out. Too much and it will be really greasy.
I served the chicken with lemon and herb roast baby potatoes and a salad of baby leaves, cucumber, tomatoes, feta cheese, walnuts and pomegranate. Really tasty and fresh!
Please give this recipe a try. It was so easy and really impressive. Thanks Gordon!!!n 20
Labels: main meals
