Spring Chicken One Pot Food

SPRING CHICKEN IN A POT

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large, heavy pan. Add the onion, gently fry for 5 mins until softened, add the chicken, then fry until lightly coloured. Add the potatoes, stock and plenty of freshly ground black pepper, then bring to the boil. Cover, then simmer for 30 mins until the potatoes are tender and the chicken is cooked. Can be frozen at this point.
• Add the broccoli, spring greens, petit pois and spring onions, stir well, then return to the boil. Cover, then cook for 5 mins more, stir in the pesto and heat through.

ONE-POT POACHED SPRING CHICKEN

Steps:

• Melt the butter in a small pan, discard the milky liquid, then pour the golden fat into a bowl and set aside - this is clarified butter. Heat oven to 150C/130C fan/gas 2. Sit the chicken in a large flameproof casserole dish, breast-side up, and arrange the potatoes and bacon around it. Pour over 1 litre of water. Add the thyme, pepper and bay, drizzle over the clarified butter and season everything with sea salt. Transfer the dish to the hob and heat until the liquid is starting to simmer. Cover the dish, cook in the oven for 1 hr 15 mins, then add the carrots and turnips. Pop the lid back on and put it back in the oven for another 35 mins.
• Scatter the peas, broad beans, onions and asparagus around the chicken, submerging them in the liquid, then cover and return to the oven for a further 10-15 mins or until the vegetables are just cooked.
• Remove from the oven, leave to stand for 5 mins, then carefully lift the chicken from the broth onto a board. If you want to crisp up the skin, blast it with a blowtorch. Stir the parsley and tarragon through the broth. Serve in the middle of the table with the vegetables and broth, and offer lemon wedges for squeezing over.

SPRING ONE-POT ROAST CHICKEN

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Remove any string from the chicken and sit in a large roasting tin or a baking dish, with plenty of space around it.
• Mash 2 tbsp of the mascarpone with the lemon zest, 1 tbsp of the tarragon and some seasoning. Slip your hand beneath the chicken skin to pull it away from the meat, then spread the mixture beneath the skin in a thin layer. Spoon another 3 tbsp mascarpone into the cavity of the chicken, to melt in with the roasting juices and enrich the sauce later on. Rub 2 tbsp olive oil into the skin, season well with sea salt, then loosely tie the legs together with butcher's string. Roast for 20 mins.
• Aarrange the potatoes and the garlic around the chicken, drizzle over another 1 tbsp oil and cook for another 30 mins.
• Toss the radishes and whole spring onions into the dish, in and around the potatoes, coating everything in the fat, then roast for another 25 mins. The potatoes and radishes will be golden and tender, and the chicken should be cooked through. Remove the chicken from the tin, cover loosely with foil and leave to rest.
• Pour off or spoon away the excess oil from the tin. Stir the remaining mascarpone (about 150g) with the stock in a jug until lump-free, then pour into the tin and bubble on the hob for few minutes, stirring to coat the potatoes and veg. Squeeze over some lemon juice and season.
• Stir in the peas, spring greens and most of the remaining tarragon, and bubble for a few more minutes until bright green. Sit the chicken back in the middle of the tin to serve and scatter over the reserved tarragon.

EASY ONE-POT CHICKEN CASSEROLE

Steps:

• Put the kettle on. Fry 8 bone-in chicken thighs in 1 tbsp oil in a casserole dish or wide pan with a lid to quickly brown.
• Stir in the whites of 5 spring onions with 2 tbsp plain flour and 2 chicken stock cubes until the flour disappears, then gradually stir in 750ml hot water from the kettle.
• Throw in 2 large carrots, in batons and 400g new potatoes, bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for 20 mins.
• Take off the lid and simmer for 15 mins more, then throw in 200g peas for another 5 mins.
• Season, stir in 1 tbsp grainy mustard, the green spring onion bits, a small handful of fresh soft herbs and some seasoning.