Roast chicken with spring onion and horseradish
Ingredients to serve 4
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85g unsalted butter
8 spring onions, chopped
2 tablespoons creamed horseradish
1 tablespoon groundnut oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
150ml dry white wine
150ml chicken stock
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
A roast chicken is one of the most traditional of Sunday lunch dishes. As with all other meats, "roast" chicken would once have been cooked on a spit in front of a fire, instead of in an oven. A young cockerel would normally have been used, as hens were far too valuable as egg-layers. Nowadays we can get chickens aplenty, but when cooking them as simply as this – well, it's fairly simple – do try and buy the very best you can, preferably corn-fed and free-range.
Pre-heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Melt 25g of the butter in a small pan. Put half of the chopped spring onions into the butter, and cook, but do not colour. Remove from the heat and stir in the horseradish
Release the skin on the chicken from the wishbone end, using a finger. Try not to make a hole in the skin. Do this on both sides, to create pockets over both breasts. Push the horseradish mixture into these pockets, then pull the skin back to chicken shape.
Heat the oil in a roasting tray on top of the stove. Colour the chicken on one leg, season and put into the pre-heated oven, laying it on that coloured leg, for 15 minutes. Turn it on to the other leg and cook for a further 15 minutes. Turn the chicken on to its back and cook for about a further 20-30 minutes. When cooked, take out of the tray and keep warm.
Pour off excess fat. Put the remaining chopped spring onion into the fat remaining in the roasting tray and colour lightly. Add the wine and boil to reduce by two-thirds. Add the chicken stock and boil to reduce by half. Shake in the remaining butter, cold and diced, and season. Mix in the parsley. Serve the hot chicken with its gravy.
From 'Great British Grub' by Brian Turner (Headline, £20).
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