So Corny...

Last weekend we had a hankering for juicy, golden roast chicken cooked over the coals on the Weber BBQ. I decided to do something a bit different with the stuffing - replacing the standard herb stuffing with one based on a vegetable favourite - sweetcorn. I also added another of my most loved ingredients, proscuitto. The result was a beautiful savoury stuffing that had the lovely sweetness of the corn but also the salty tang of the proscuitto. To change it up a bit more, I also took fresh tarragon from the herb garden and made a little tarragon and garlic butter which I put under the skin of the chicken. As it cooked, the flesh was infused with the butter which made for a succulent and aromatic result. During the cooking process, I basted the chicken with the delicious juices to ensure maximum flavour.

Make sure you chose a good quality free range chicken and always dry your chicken inside and out with paper towels before you stuff or cook it. You will get great crispy skin and a much better result. Being only the two of us, we had heaps of chicken left over for the next day - I ended up throwing the chopped leftover chicken into a quick and easy fried rice dish. Worked a treat.

Some of you have been asking about the wedding plans - well, we have settled on the menu for the 16 April - our caterers have been completely brilliant so far and we have tasted all the delights that our guests will enjoy on the big day. We didn't want anything overly formal. Never been a fan of the alternating "beef or chicken" type of thing and also didn't want a buffet. We want our guests to have choice without getting up from the table, so we have come up with a great solution that will give us a touch of informality, but presented with a bit of style. I love the menu that we have created - can't wait to share it with you. Yes, you have to wait! I promise to post all the details with pics before we get on that plane to Paris for our honeymoon on the19th April.

Now, back to today's gorgeous golden, corny chook......

Chicken with Tarragon Butter

and Corn & Proscuitto stuffing

 

You will need:

For the chicken/tarragon butter: 1 whole free range chicken, 2 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon chopped tarragon, 3 cloves finely chopped garlic, salt and pepper.


For the stuffing: 2 cups cooked corn kernels, 2 cups fresh breadcrumbs, 6 slices proscuitto, 1 large red onion, 2 cloves garlic, splash of olive oil,1 free range egg, salt and pepper, 1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley, 1 tablespoon grated parmesan, pinch cayenne pepper, 2 teaspoons freshly chopped tarragon.


Method:
First, make your stuffing - Place the corn in a food processor and blitz it for a few seconds until the kernels are broken down into smaller pieces. You do not want a puree – ensure that the corn has some texture.


Chop the onion and garlic and cook with a splash of olive oil on a medium heat until the onion is soft. Roughly chop the prosciutto and add to the onion. Cook for a further 5 minutes.


Combine all of the ingredients together and mix very well until it binds well (clean hands work best for this) Stuff the chicken with the stuffing.


Now make the tarragon butter – combine the butter, garlic, tarragon, salt and pepper and mix very well. Gently push the butter under the skin of the chicken, being careful not to tear the chicken skin as you go. Try to get the butter down near the legs as well as the breast. Rub the chicken all over with a touch of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.


Bake for 60-80 minutes, depending on the size of your chook. Let the chicken rest, covered in foil, for 10 minutes once it is out of the oven.


Serve with baked potatoes, whole baby carrots and asparagus.

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Char! Char! Char!

I love the flavour of BBQ or char grilled food. Something about that smoky flavour and caramelised character really adds another dimension of flavour and texture to the food. Today's recipe uses this technique, along with delicious fresh herbs and the lovely rich citrus kick of preserved lemons to make a very special roasted chicken. I cooked the chicken on the Weber - over the coals with the lid on - and I flattened the chicken, Portugese style to speed up  the cooking time and maximise the exposure of the meat to all those lovely coals. You can of course cook the chicken in the oven or on a standard hooded BBQ if you aren't able to do the coals thing. I teamed the chicken with a very simple char grilled vegetable salad and ate it with some lovely rustic sourdough bread.

If you haven't used preserved lemon before, I have included instructions for how to prepare it for cooking in the recipe below. You use only the rind - the rest of the preserved lemon will be very salty and inedible. You will find preserved lemon at middle eastern grocery stores and gourmet food shops. It is very easy to make your own preserved lemons, but they take about a month to be ready for use. Make them when lemons are in season and at their best. I just wash the lemons well and slice a deep cross into the top of them (they should open up like a flower but still be in one piece) Then I pack them into sterilised jars to which I add a few peppercorns, a bay leaf, a few cloves and a stick of cinnamon. Then I pack them in salt and top them up with lemon juice. They then go into a dark place for about a month. I turn the jars every few days to keep everything well mixed. The lemons should be completely covered, so you may need to add more lemon juice and salt as you go. Choose jars with airtight lids - you don't want the air getting in to your lemons and spoiling them.

All of the herbs that I used in my recipe were picked fresh right from our garden. I am getting so much pleasure from having some outside space and growing herbs and veges. I currently have 13 different herbs, along with baby Cos lettuce, Roma tomatoes, chillies, beetroot, capsicums and french radishes. I will add to this as time progresses. I am really new to the whole garden thing and it is pretty much trial and error - with advice from friends and some online info. I am blessed with a sunny yard so things seem to be growing very fast. I am looking forward to when the vegetable crops mature and I can take them straight from the garden to the table. We recently aquired a compost bin so we will be recycling our scraps too, to add to the already rich soil that we have. There are lots of worms in the ground and the plants look happy - so far, so good!

Hope that you enjoy this different take on the basic roast chicken....

Lemony Herbed Chicken with Char Grilled Vegetable Salad

You will need: 1 whole chicken
(for the chicken marinade) 4 cloves minced garlic, 1 teaspoon thyme (I used lemon thyme for an extra lemony kick), 1 teaspoon finely chopped tarragon, 1 tablespoon chopped continental parsley, 1 teaspoon minced red chilli, 1/3 cup olive oil, 2 teaspoons pureed preserved lemon*see note, salt and pepper.

(for the char grilled vegetable salad) 1 medium eggplant, 2 medium zucchini, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon chopped continental parsley, 2 medium tomatoes - diced with seeds removed, salt and pepper, extra olive oil.

Method:
(for the chicken) Combine all of the chicken marinade ingredients and set aside.

Wash the chicken with cold water and dry inside and out with paper towels. Lay the chicken on a chopping board breast down. Now, with a sharp knife cut down either side of the backbone. This will remove the backbone/tail in one piece - disguard this backbone. If there is any offal attached to the remaining chicken, trim it off.
Next, turn the chicken over so that it is breast up. With the palm of your hand, push down firmly to flatten the chicken out. Now that the backbone is removed, this will be quite simple to do. You now have one flat chicken!
 
Rub about 2/3 of the marinade mixture over the chicken, including under the skin as much as you can. This should be easy now that the backbone has been removed. Allow the chicken to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
 
Cook the chicken on a BBQ with a hood, or a Weber (preferably over coals if you can, the flavour is even better this way) breast down to start with - for about 40 minutes. Turn frequently and baste with the remaining marinade. Allow the chicken to rest, covered in foil for 15 minutes before serving.
 
(for the salad) Slice the eggplant into pieces about 1cm thick. Cut the eggplant into long or diagonal slices (whatever is easy for you)
 
While the chicken is resting, splash some olive oil on the vegetables and season with salt and pepper. Cook on the BBQ a few minutes each side, until they are tender and you have nice grill marks on the vegetables.
 
Remove from the heat and just before serving, toss through the tomato, parsley, balsamic, olive oil and season generously. Serve with the chicken.

*To prepare the preserved lemon: With a teaspoon, gently scrape the flesh and the soft pith away from the rind - it will come away very easily. Disgard this. Rinse the remaining lemon rind with water to remove the salt that it has been preserved in. Chop the rind very small and then using the flat side of your knife, squash the rind until it is a smooth puree.
 

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