Chicken Dinner

Hello

안녕하세요 

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは 

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

I'm always looking for new recipe's to try and share with you that it's never occurred to me to share with you a recipe I like to make when I use chicken for our Sunday dinners, I thought this recipe would be helpful for anyone that's not really confident when it comes to cooking chicken. I'm one of those people who are nervous cooking chicken because I'm scared I'm not going to cook it enough, but this is my go to recipe when cooking a chicken dinner.

Shall we get cooking?

Ingredients:

1 chicken, weighing 1.442 kg

55 g butter, softened

2 tbsp thyme

1 lemon, cut into quarters

125 ml white wine

Start off by preheating your oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7 and place your chicken in a roasting tin. Put the butter into a bowl, then mix in the thyme.

Next cut your lemon in to quarters ready to use.

Next use the butter to spread over the skin of your chicken, place the lemon inside the cavity of the chicken and pour the wine over the chicken and roast in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5 and roast, basting frequently, for a further 1 3/4 hours.

To check if a whole bird is cooked through, pierce the thickest part of the leg between the drumstick and the thigh with a skewer. Any juices should be piping hot and clear with no traces of red or pink. To further check, gently pull the leg away from the body, the leg should 'give' and no traces of pinkness or blood should remain.

Transfer the chicken to a warmed platter, or leave in roasting tin and cover with foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Once rested it's ready to carve, I always start by pulling off the legs and then taking the rest of the chicken away from the bone, I tend to use my hands to do this and sometimes a fork to stop the chicken from burning my fingers.

Now you're ready to serve.

Even though I don't really like or enjoy cooking chicken, I always use this recipe as the chicken is always soft and juicy and the skin is crispy and delicious. I always serve mine with with mash potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and sprouts. With me only cook for myself and Skye, there's always plenty of chicken left over, meaning I can enjoy a chicken sandwich.

See you soon!

안녕
(Annyeong)
さようなら
(Sayonara)
再见
(ZaiJian)

Bye

Honey & Herb Lamb

Hello

안녕하세요 

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは 

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

I think my resolution for next year will be to do more cooking (and baking) posts as to say it's part of my main posts on my blog, I've not really done much this year, I think my main goal is to do at lease 2 cooking posts a month (as well as 2 baking posts a month). Today's cooking post is something I've never cooked before and it's not something I tend to eat either at home or when out, so I thought I'd give lamb a try.
Shall we get cooking?

Ingredients:
1.4 kg shoulder of lamb, trimmed
1/2 bunch thyme, leaves only
Handful dried camomile (4 camomile teabags)
4 sprigs rosemary, leaves only
12 sage leaves, roughly chopped
Salt and ground black pepper
1 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp clear honey
2 tbsp olive oil
125 ml water

Start off by preheating your oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.

Next with a sharp knife, score the skin and fat of the lamb shoulder, but not into the meat, making a crosshatch pattern. Thankfully mine was already scored ready for me to cook.

Next mix the camomile, thyme, rosemary, sage and oregano in a bowl, then season with salt and black pepper.

Next Press a handful of the herb mixture into the lamb skin, rubbing it all over.

Next sprinkle some of the herb mixture in a casserole dish then place the lamb on top of it and drizzle the lemon juice over the lamb before sprinkling any remaining herb mixture.

Next drizzle the honey and olive oil over the top.

Next pour the water into the casserole dish then put the lid on.

Place in the oven and cook for 2 1/2 hours. Check the dish after an hour, if the water has evaporated, add some more to maintain the dish moisture. My lamb joint was only 400 g so I only cooked it for around 50 minutes.

After 2 1/2 hours of cooking, remove from the oven and let it rest for 4-5 minutes.

Lastly to serve, pull large pieces of of lamb away from the bone, place on your plate and drizzle the meat with any meat juices remaining from the casserole dish. 

Serve with any vegetables of your choice, I served mine with mashed potatoes, carrots, broccoli, peas, sprouts and Yorkshire puddings.

I was really nervous that I wouldn't like this recipe as I can't remember the last time that I had lamb but was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. I'll definitely be cooking this again and possibly for more people, I loved the flavours on the lamb. I got this recipe from my diary so I can't add a link for you this time but all the ingredients and directions are as in my diary, I just had to modify my own recipe to fit with the size of the lamb joint that I had.
I really recommend giving this recipe a try if you enjoy lamb during the week or as part of your Sunday lunch.

See you soon!

안녕
(Annyeong)
さようなら
(Sayonara)
再见
(ZaiJian)
Bye