Tesco Real Food emailed a while back to ask if I would like to make their Glazed Roast Chicken recipe. As part of their new Love Every Mouthful campaign, they had undertaken a survey to find out each region’s favourite family meal. Apparently Manchester’s favourite is the British classic, the roast dinner. I just hope that means people are cooking roast dinners from scratch and not with a little help from Aunt Bessie… As we all know, roasts aren’t hard as such, they are just a bit stressful at the end, when it all comes together – so many pots and pans to wash! The reason I like this roast chicken dinner alternative is because it is so much simpler and easier than the classic version we’re all used to. It’s a fun and tasty twist – and man was it a hit in my house. The children devoured it like they hadn’t eaten for a week.
Now, as I am doing this post in promotion of a Tesco campaign, before I go any further, I think I should lay my cards on the table regarding supermarkets and my feelings about them. I think they are a necessary, convenient presence in our increasingly busy lives, one that serves a very useful purpose. I do use pretty much all of the big ones, sometimes, when I need a ‘big shop’. But I also use my local butcher and fishmonger and greengrocer when I can, which is most weeks. I think if more people balanced the two then we’d all be better off. However, I do wish supermarkets would pay their suppliers more. I think they should stock more ugly fruit and veg. And lastly, I REALLY wish they would stop wasting so much food (the recent news story on this made me stop in my tracks as I’m sure they did you). Why not give the out of date food (which is normally fine) to food banks?
Back to the recipe… I answered the email with a resounding yes, as long as they could provide a free-range bird. They did, along with all other ingredients. Great, a Sunday dinner for free. I decided to stick to the Glazed chicken recipe, but to add my own twist to their suggested sides of Charlotte potatoes and tenderstem broccoli. They treated them fairly plainly in their recipe, but I thought they deserved a little tarting up, Chinese style, to bring them up to scratch with their plate fellow.
I made some minor amendments to the method: I had my voracious oven on lower than they suggested, an I covered the bird in foil as the garlic and ginger would’ve burned. It worked a treat.
To make dinner for 4 people:
A small roast chicken, organic or free-range
6 1/2 tablespoons clear honey
5 tablespoons of soy sauce
small piece of ginger, grated
6 cloves of garlic, grated or crushed
5 tablespoons of rice wine
For the roast 5 spice potatoes:
1 kg Charlotte potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon of Chinese 5 spice
For the broccoli in oyster sauce:
200g Tenderstem broccoli
2 tablespoons of sunflower oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced100ml water2 tablespoons of oyster sauce2 teaspoons light soy sauce2 teaspoons fish sauce
- Preheat the oven to 190C. In a small saucepan, bring the glaze ingredients to the boil and bubble away for 5 minutes or so to thicken.
- Pour over the chicken, cover with foil and begin roasting. Baste with the glaze every 20-30 minutes. Remove the foil for the last 20 minutes or so. We cooked ours for about 1 hour 40 minutes. I don’t want to dictate a time, as you have to judge whether then chicken is cooked yourself. Stick a skewer in the plumpest part of the breast and remove – if the juices run clear it’s done. Also, wiggle the leg; if it comes away easily that’s a sign it’s done too. Allow the chicken to rest for at least 20 minutes, covered in foil to keep warm.
- For the potatoes, simply halve, toss in a roasting pan with the spices and oil. Roast for about 45 minutes or until nice and crispy and cooked inside. The same heat as the chicken is fine.
- And now the broccoli. Using a wok or large frying pan, fry the sliced garlic in hot oil for a few minutes. Don’t allow it to colour or it will taste acrid. Add the water, soy, oyster sauce, fish sauce and finally the broccoli. Let it steam with a lid on for about 5-10 minutes, or until it’s nicely wilted. See the photo above.
- Serve with the glaze which will have made the most delicious gravy, mixing with the chicken juices.
