Student kitchens » chicken

Jamie’s perfect roast chicken is…well, perfect.

Zo Zhou — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:04:56 +0000

Have I ever mentioned that I think Jamie Oliver is perfect? No, not just his chicken, but…think about it now. He’s not sme foddery old bloke. Plenty energetic. Uses proper butter and proper amounts of oil in his recipes. Cooks REAL FOOD, that most of us can attempt. Has gone beyond just cooking food, but has been ambitious enough to attempt the way kids eat (and thus live) through Jamie’s dinners, and the way people cook through Jamie’s Ministry of Food. Best of all, he’s not a pretentious prick about it – he’s still pretty modest, still keeps in touch with the guys who taught him so much and doesn’t pretend to know more than them. Also, the man loves gardening.

Anyway, I had to get that rant out of the way. Now, before I go on to refer you to his fantastic guides, I just want to mention that I didn’t actually TOUCH this chicken. I wasn’t eating it (I don’t actually eat chicken, but trust me when I say the smell almost made me change my mind), so the reviews are based on my hard-to-please family who always consider most roast chicken to be dry, bland, and a pain to make. Without using fiddly tinfoil, this chicken has moist breast (thanks to a joyful mistake on my part – sitting the chicken breast down), crispy skin, is packed with flavour, and makes an AMAZING gravy. Before you get skeptical about difficulty level, let me tell you that I have never roasted a chicken before, and have only seen them roasted using those ready-to-roast bag things. I nailed this first time around, so can you.

Jamie’s guide to perfect roast chicken

My tweaks: I used sage and flat parsley and got my cousin to stuff them into the chicken cavity, then the lemon.

I sat the bird breast-side down so these didn’t dry out. If you really want crispy breast skin though, try sitting it the other way.

I splashed a few Tablespoons of water into the tray to keep things moist

Jamie’s guide to consistently fabulous gravy

My tweaks: I took out the carrots and onions and served them with the carved chicken pieces rather than mushing them up in the gravy.

Jamie’s guide to making real stock (freezable) using leftover chicken carcass

Clare’s butter chicken

Zo Zhou — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:28:51 +0000

I’ll leave it up to Clare’s words:

So you wana make a curry huh? Well I’m no real expert but I’ve made the odd butter chicken in my time so…

This is meant to be a sweet tomato curry with a wee bit of heat and a lot of flavour to it. It’s been a long term favourite of mine and my flatmates always love it when I cook it; the way it smells is divine and it’s such a gorgeous colour.

Butter Chicken

Basic formula:

-yoghurt/coconut cream

-tomato paste (no other flavours in it)

-sweet chilli sauce (personal preference)

-onion

-garlic

-spices! (see recipe)

-chicken breast

I tend to build my curries from a thick natural yoghurt (such as greek) up, but building from coconut cream (not milk) could also work (if you have tried this please tell me how it went!) Avoid using a sweetened yoghurt however, as it would detract from the natural sweetness we are going to add. For two people I use 150ml of yoghurt then add about half that much of tomato puree/paste. Don’t use the ones with Italian spices in! If you have a can of tomatoes available lob a few of them in too, the more tomatoey goodness the better. I also have a tendency to add a (healthy) squirt of sweet chilli sauce, but that really is my own personal preference as I put sweet chilli sauce on everything. Finely dice a whole onion and throw half of it into the yoghurt base and put the other half into a food processor (if available otherwise don’t stress too much about this step and just hold it in reserve) and blend till smooth, a splash of water may help this step. Finely dice 2 cloves of garlic and add to the yoghurt base. Now comes the fun of playing with the spices! I use; garam masala (a precombined ground spice mixture, our version consists of; pepper, caraway, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves), ground coriander seed, star anise, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, paprika, and cumin. I also shake in some almond power if I have it available just for the heck of it. Now i know that’s a pretty hefty seeming list but honestly, these spices are totally worth the investment, turmeric can be used to add colour to anything, garam masala potatoes went down a treat, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom are all used in baking gingerbread, etc. I start with probably 4tsp coriander seed and garam masala, 2 of turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg 1 of paprika and cumin and give it a sniff, if you can still smell yoghurt under it add more tomtato paste and a shake more of coriander and garam masala. Throw a skinless chicken breast chopped into bitesize pieces in and stir it like a crazy person. (i am well aware of exactly how unappetising it looks right now, but gimme a chance here :P)

Now to cook your creation! Start with a sizeable knob of butter (we’re talking 15-20gms here) and melt it in a pan till bubbling, then add the onion puree, three shakes of garam masala and a pinch of tumeric. “stir fry” till you can really smell the onion and spices and then tip your yoghurt-tomatoey-chickeny-spicy mixture into the pan and stir all around. You will initially be able to see the butter mixture as distinct from the yoghurt mixture, remedy this! Bring them together! Now is the time to add your star anise. Add an entire star, it imparts incredible sweetness and don’t chicken out like i did when i first smelt how strong it was, it really comes through a lot tamer than you expect. Give everything a good mix up and taste test what you’ve made. If there’s something missing add it, i tend to find a shake or two of garam masala is a good idea at this stage although adding it 5-10 minutes before serving will mean it holds its flavour best and comes through strongest; it weakens a fair bit on cooking. Now place a lid on your curry and leave it on a low heat for roughly 10mins before stirring, taste testing* and replacing the lid. Now is the time to start cooking your rice as the curry is about 20mins from ready. I wish I knew Andre’s rice cooking secrets but I don’t so you’ll just have to make it up to packet directions, however throwing in 1/2tbsp of salt per full cup of rice works very well. Return to curry after another 10mins and repeat taste test*. Now is the time to add a healthy final shake of garam masala if it seems required. If you prefer a thicker curry I would strongly recommend leaving the lid off for the final 10mins, which should see the rice ready and the curry should have your mouth watering. A portion of rice each and the curry either served on top of or to the side. Na’an is the obvious accompaniment to this meal…however I have no recipe for na’an…except calling your local Indian take away and ordering some sooooo…prolly your best bet is to do that! (try the garlic na’an its awesome stuff)

* Curry isn’t sweet enough = add a shake of nutmeg, a pinch of cinnamon and some coriander seed. Also remember that the star anise will just develop more sweetness as it cooks

Curry tastes too bland = add more of everything esp. garam masala and turmeric

Curry has achieved a “powdery appearance” = add a splash of water

Curry looks too runny = leave lid off for next 10mins

Curry is too hot/spicy for you = man up; there’s no such thing

Clare’s version of Taste’s Lemon Herb Chicken

Zo Zhou — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:47:21 +0000

…made into what I heard was a very filling dinner – without any cream or butter used on the chicken. Chicken breasts are low in fat and this recipe doesn’t stamp out this great attribute – it provides loads of flavour though, and is quite easy to make.

Lemon Herb Chicken with garlic couscous and steamed veggibles

Serves two

Adapted from Taste.

Lemon Herb Chicken

1 Chicken breast (skin on)

1 cup chicken stock

1 clove finely chopped garlic

2 tsp lemon juice

Pinch of ground coriander seed (just for some sweetness to counter the tartness of the lemon)

1 tsp dijonaise mustard

Healthy shake of mixed herb

Heat a little oil in frying pan, and place chicken skin side down. When skin is brown and crispy flip breast and add garlic. When garlic goes golden add chicken stock, lemon juice, mustard and mixed herb to pan. Cover, and regularly baste chicken with stock until cooked all the way through. The basting helps to maintain a nice moist chicken breast. Split, and serve.

Couscous (easily done while chicken is cooking)

1c couscous

1c boiling stock (chicken, beef or veggie all work fine)

Knob of butter (approx)

1-2 cloves well diced garlic

Place couscous in bowl with stock and cover tightly for 5minutes. Fluff with a fork when done. Melt butter in pan until bubbling and then add garlic. When garlic starts to go soft add couscous to pan and fry for 5-10mins to get flavour of garlic throughout couscous.

Steam some veggibles of choice (I did carrot and broccoli)

Serve on a bed of couscous and drizzle chicken liquids over the top.

Clare’s version of Taste’s Tomato and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast

Zo Zhou — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:00:02 +0000

No photo this time as I wasn’t around to snap it, but I hear it’s pretty easy and tasty. Chicken Breasts aren’t the cheapest thing around these days though so probably avoid the supermarket for this one if you want to keep your costs down. Farm’s chicken is quite good (once I figure out how to put links in text box thingers on wordpress I’ll link it) but if you’re in Chch, look it up on Yellow Pages, it’s in Riccarton. If you’re not in Christchurch your local butcher will probably do it cheaper.

Ok, now here it is:

Tom and Cheese stuffed chicken breast

Sorry I didn’t manage to take a pic of this one but it tasted pretty damn fine! And was incredibly simple to make, clean up was also easy peasy.

Stole this recipe from Taste but (obviously) tweaked it to my liking!

1 Skinless chicken breast per person

2Tbsp Tomato paste or sauce per breast

20g Cheese per breast (I used Edam cos it was all we had in the fridge, but would recommend a stronger tasting cheese such as tasty or even parmesan (if you happen to like that sort of thing) without hesitation. Also sticking some grated mozzarella in there too would’ve been nomable)

½ Clove of garlic per breast

Oil for rubbing

Salt and mixed herb to season

So, this is nice and simple and tasted so good, basically cut the breast in half, and then slice it longways to 3cm before the end. Open the breast and stuff with tomato sauce, cheese and well diced garlic. Close the breast and place in a baking tray; rub well with oil and season with salt and possibly a shake of mixed herb. Bake in the oven at 175°C for about 30 Minutes, until chicken is cooked. Be careful not to overcook the chicken as it will dry out and become tough. I served this with rustic mashed potato and baked carrots and cauliflower, recipes for all of which are located around the site.