Diana Henry - A Bird in the Hand: Chicken Recipes for Every Day and Every Mood

DIANA HENRY

chicken recipes for every day and every mood

MITCHELL BEAZLEY

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Chicken, in its many guises, has always been part of my life. Chicken Maryland, a big chunk of golden-skinned bird served with fried bananas and bacon, was what my siblings and I ordered when we went out to supper as kids. Sitting on modish chairs with scratchy seats, our feet barely touching the ground, we tackled plates of this in the local grillroom (such things existed in the 1970s) with appetites that were bigger than our child-sized bellies. At home, roast chicken with parsley and onion stuffing served with my mums chips was the meal that always provoked cheers. As teenagers, picnics werent based on sandwiches, but on a whole cold roast chicken whose meat we would tear apart and stuff into soft white rolls. Chicken curry (the old-fashioned British kind made with curry paste, raisins and the remains of the roast) was the exotic accompaniment to Sunday night telly. When I was taken to supper by a boy I really fancied only to have him tell me that he was interested in my best friend I was eating chicken (it was probably the only time in my life I didnt polish it off). And the first meal I ever cooked for my partner at his request was a braise of .

Chicken is the thing I sneak into the fridge to steal (usually with a bottle of HP sauce nearby) and the first dish I order when I arrive in Portugal (piri piri) or the States (fried). At the end of a filming day with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (I was a TV producer before I was a food writer), we were finishing dinner when Hugh FW looked at the remains of the bird on my plate. It was hard to tell from the clean little bones what I had eaten, but Hugh knew. What did you do to that chicken? he asked (with more than a little admiration). I stripped it to its bones, I said. Just as I was taught. This is down to my dad, who always pointed out the little morsels you hadnt managed to extricate from the carcass and was fond of all the tastiest bits: the oysters (those little plump cushions of meat on the underside), the crisp tipped wings, the juicy thighs. In my family we were instructed in the enjoyment of chicken.

And it appears to be dear or at least a good buddy to others, too. Fried chicken, chicken tikka masala, jerk chicken, many cultures have cherished chicken dishes. It is also the meat most people even those who arent keen on meat will eat. Its amenable, too, and I mean that in a good way. Its the basic outfit that you can dress down (for picky children) or dress up (on those occasions when you want to present a dish that prompts everyone to ask for the recipe). My efforts with it range from bashing strips of chicken breast, dipping them in egg and breadcrumbs and frying them (a favourite of my kids), to brining a big expensive bird and serving it on a platter surrounded by glossy chestnuts and prunes (for the Christmas meal). In between, I make chicken dishes from all over the world. There isnt a week goes by that I dont cook chicken at least once.

Over the years, Ive opted to buy more expensive chicken but less often; a roast chicken is just the beginning of many meals as you have stock and leftover flesh, making even a pricier bird a relatively economical option. I buy a mixture of free-range and Freedom Food birds. Freedom Food poultry is reared to the RSPCAs welfare standards and costs only a little more than intensively reared poultry, so its hard to justify not buying it. Im lucky that my butcher stocks chickens from two great farms as well: Sutton Hoo and my favourite Fosse Meadows. There are other more expensive birds, from Label Anglais all the way to Bresse chicken (Bresse is very expensive but a great treat if youre a chicken lover). The Fosse Meadows bird does have a much better flavour than Freedom Food chicken and, when I want a golden, crisp-skinned roast, this is what I splash out on. But you can, with good ideas and careful cooking, turn less expensive chicken into a fantastic meal. When foodies complain about how tasteless they find regular chicken, Im really not sure what theyre doing to it. How should you shop for chicken? Simply buy the best you can.

Readers and friends often ask for help with chicken. How can they make it different, what can they do that isnt the same old, same old? Even though my job is to think about food, I often have the same problem myself when I start to wonder about the evening meal. So I gathered up all the dishes I could old favourites and new ones, mostly nothing too difficult to put in this book. There are also short pieces of writing on braising and roasting that you should read, but Ive tried to keep instructions on method to a minimum. Cooking chicken is basically easy and theres no reason to complicate it. I just wanted to give you as many recipes and new ideas as possible. Many of the obvious classics are missing; other people have given recipes for Thai green chicken curry, so you hardly need that again. Instead, Ive tried to offer the less well-known and riffs on the familiar. The book could have been three times the size, but sometimes less is more and I thought it was better to have a useful book in the kitchen than a thick, comprehensive tome.

All the recipes in here are now part of my repertoire. I hope they become part of yours, too, and that the evenings when you look at the packet of chicken thighs in your fridge and think, What the hell am I going to do with those? are a thing of the past. If you have chicken in the fridge, a good meal is never far away.

Simple chicken thighs transformed into something special. If you cant get morcilla (Spanish black pudding), use British black pudding instead. The cream isnt at all mandatory, I often leave it out, it just depends on your mood (sometimes you want a treat and a bit of luxury). Increase the quantities and you have an excellent supper for friends for very little effort.

SERVES 2

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

4 skin-on bone-in chicken thighs

8 slices of morcilla, or black pudding

large onion, cut into slim crescent moon-shaped wedges

200ml (7fl oz) dry sherry, plus 3 tbsp more if needed

3 tbsp double cream

1 tbsp toasted pine nuts

1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

Heat the oil in a small ovenproof frying pan that can fit the thighs and morcilla snugly in a single layer. Season the chicken and brown on both sides just for colour, not to cook it through. Take out of the pan and set aside. Add the morcilla to the pan and cook it lightly on both sides, then remove it, too, and set aside with the chicken. If theres a lot of fat in the pan, pour all but 1 tbsp of it off. Dont wash the pan or try to dislodge any bits stuck to it; theres flavour there.

Add the onion to the pan and colour it lightly; you dont need it to soften. Deglaze the pan with the sherry, scraping the base with a wooden spoon to remove all the flavoursome scraps, then return the chicken and morcilla. Bake in the hot oven for 40 minutes; if you stick the tip of a sharp knife into the underside of one of the thighs, the juices that run out should be clear with no trace of pink; if the chicken is not quite ready, cook for a few minutes more, then test again.