Poussin Recipes Jamie Oliver Food

ROASTED HAMILTON POUSSIN WRAPPED WITH STREAKY BACON AND STUFFED WITH POTATOES AND SAGE

Steps:

• Preheat your oven and an appropriately sized roasting tray to 425 to 450 degrees. Boil your potatoes in salted water until perfectly cooked (don't overcook). Drain and allow to cool. Remove any fat from inside the chicken cavity. Wash and pat dry with kitchen paper. Slice your potatoes thickly, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, add your freshly torn herbs and enough olive oil just to coat. Toss over and then stuff your chickens with the potatoes. Place them into the tray with about 12 cloves of garlic and cook for 30 minutes. After this time the chicken should be looking as handsome as its inventor and the skin should be crisp and golden.
• At this point lay your streaky bacon snugly over the breast meat and add a 1/2 cup of wine to the pan to get some sticky marmitey juices happening. Cook for another 15 minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven. Take them out of the tray and allow them to rest for 5 minutes while you make a quick bit of gravy. I normally remove as much fat as possible from the tray before placing on gentle heat. Splash the remaining 1 cup of white wine into it. Then boil up and scrape away all the goodness from the sides of the tray. Simmer this for a couple of minutes until tasty. It's not a thick, robust gravy, just a tasty gesture. (Another nice option at this point is to add a little cream to the gravy which works really well.) Served with something nice and green like steamed spinach and the potatoes pulled out from the chickens.

LEMON ROAST POUSSIN WITH SPRING VEGETABLES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/ gas 7. Season the inside of the poussins generously with salt and pepper, then stuff each with a garlic clove, half a bunch of thyme and a lemon half.
• Sit the birds in a shallow roasting dish. Smother generously with butter, then season the skin with sea salt and black pepper. Roast in the oven for about 40 mins.
• While the birds are roasting, prepare the accompaniments. For the braised peas and lettuce, heat a frying pan and add a drizzle of oil. Sizzle the bacon for 2 mins until starting to crisp. Turn down the heat a little, toss in the onions, then continue to cook for 6-7 mins until they are golden.
• Pour the chicken stock into the pan, simmer for 2 mins, then scatter in the peas and cook for 2 mins more. Lastly, stir in the lettuce and cook for 1 min until just wilted, then set aside.
• For the spring vegetables, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and have a bowl of iced water at the ready. In batches, boil all the veg (except the radishes), then transfer to the iced water. The courgettes will take 3 mins, the carrots and leeks 2 mins. Drain the vegetables, then lay them on kitchen paper to dry.
• Heat a drizzle of olive oil in another frying pan, then stir-fry the vegetables until just starting to colour. Add the vinegar, lemon zest and a little seasoning. Turn off the heat, toss through the radishes, then drizzle with a little more oil.
• Check if the poussins are cooked by inserting a skewer or small knife between the leg and the breast; if the juices are pink, give the bird an extra 5-10 minutes in the oven. Once ready, remove the poussins from the dish and leave to rest, upside down, for 10 mins (this keeps the breasts from drying out). To make a simple gravy, remove the lemon halves from the poussins, squeeze into the juices in the roasting dish, then whisk together.
• Strain the lemony juices into a jug. You are now ready to carve the birds and plate up.
• Using a sharp knife, cut through the thigh joint and remove the leg. Cut each leg through the joint to separate the drumstick from the thigh. Carefully carve the breasts away from the bone, cutting through the joint to leave the wing attached. Carve each breast into 2 pieces so each portion has 2 pieces of leg and 2 pieces of breast.
• Spoon a mound of the braised peas and lettuce into the centre of 4 large, shallow, bowls. Neatly assemble a 'nest' of vegetables around the lettuce. Pile the carved poussin on top of the lettuce, giving each serving the same amount of meat. Pour over the lemony sauce and serve straight away.

CHRISTMAS POUSSIN

Steps:

• Heat oven to 230C/fan 210C/gas 8. Smear the butter all over the poussins, season inside and out, then criss-cross the bacon over each one. Sit the poussins in a roasting tin and cook for 40 mins until the birds are golden and the bacon is crisp. Remove from the tin, leave to rest and set the tin aside until you're ready to make the gravy.
• About 5 mins before you sit down to eat, make the gravy. Place the tin on a medium heat, then stir in the flour and splash in the Worcestershire sauce. Bubble together, then drain the veg over the roasting tin and stir in the vegetable stock. Bring the gravy to the boil, taste for seasoning, adding more Worcestershire sauce if needed, then pour into a warm gravy jug.