Nigel Slater’s recipes for chicken sautéed with olives and lemon, and with mushrooms, mustard and soured cream | Food

Brown meat or white? I sit on the fence liking each equally, although in several methods. In a rooster sandwich, with lemon mayonnaise, chirpy watercress and smooth peppery basil leaves, I desire skinny slices from the breast (which I additionally unfold with a high-quality wave of yuzu kosho). However it’s the brown meat – the thighs, drumsticks and juicy little oysters hiding within the undercarriage – that I take advantage of for pies, sautés and the infinite baked chicken-thigh dinners that come from this kitchen on an nearly weekly foundation.

Generally the recipe itself decrees the lower that’s most fitted. A slowly simmered stew will flip rooster breasts to rags, however cut back even the hardest of hard-worked thigh meat to silk. A delicate sauce made with white wine, cream and tarragon is inconceivable to beat with the pale flesh from the breast, particularly when left within the palms of a French cook dinner.

If I open the fridge on a Monday night to the wonderful sight of a leftover roast rooster on its platter, it’s the drumsticks I head for, twisting them from the carcass and stuffing them into any sauce at hand (ideally garlic mayonnaise, however I wouldn’t say no to nearly something).

The leftovers are, in fact, as a lot a deal with as the remainder of the fowl, however for this week’s recipes I’d go for broke with fats thighs and plump breasts from the best-bred fowl to which our budgets will stretch.

Hen sautéed with olives and lemon

The lemons, sliced thinly, soften deliciously because the rooster, olives and potatoes cook dinner. You eat them, pores and skin and all. There’s a richness to this recipe, regardless of the common-or-garden ingredient checklist. Serves 4

rooster breasts 1 kg
olive oil 2 tbsp
onions 2, giant
lemon 1
saffron a pinch (optionally available)
small potatoes 350g, small
inexperienced olives a big handful
rooster inventory

For the paste:
garlic 3 giant cloves
smoked paprika ½ tsp
floor turmeric 2 tsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp
olive oil 2-3 tbsp

Make the spice paste first. Peel the garlic and place in a mortar or meals processor. Add a pinch of salt and pound to a paste. Stir within the paprika, turmeric and cumin seeds and grind, introducing sufficient olive oil (about 3 tbsp) to make a unfastened paste.

Put the rooster breasts in a bowl, add the spice paste and toss to coat. Cowl with a plate and depart to marinate in a cool place for a superb hour.

Peel and chop the onions. Warmth somewhat olive oil in a large pan, add the onions and allow them to soften and color calmly. Take away from the pan and put aside. Introduce the rooster breasts to the pan, letting them color calmly on either side.

Thinly slice the lemon and add to the pan with the saffron and sufficient inventory to come back midway up the rooster items. Thinly slice the potatoes into cash and add to the pan, return the onions and canopy with a lid and depart to cook dinner for 15-20 minutes till the rooster and potatoes are cooked.

Add the olives and verify the seasoning. Take away the rooster and hold it heat, then flip up the warmth and let the liquid cut back somewhat till barely soupy. I serve this with a knife, fork and spoon.

Hen with mushrooms, mustard and soured cream

‘There’s something vaguely Hungarian about this’: rooster with mushrooms, mustard and soured cream. {Photograph}: Jonathan Lovekin/The Observer

There’s something vaguely Hungarian about this – although I need to admit it’s a whereas since I crossed that individual bridge. The paprika, mustard and soured cream give it the texture of a goulash, however it’s removed from that, with its further notes of garam masala and coriander. What you get is a hearty stew of brown meat. I take advantage of thighs, however you can embody the entire leg if you want. Serves 4

groundnut or vegetable oil 2 tbsp
rooster thighs 850g, on the bone
purple onions 350g
onions 2, medium
garlic 3 cloves
mushrooms 225g, small and brown
floor cumin 3 tsp
floor coriander 3 tsp
garam masala 2 tbsp
vegetable or rooster inventory 500ml
plain flour 1 heaped tbsp
grain mustard 2 tsp
Dijon mustard 2 tsp
soured cream 150ml
coriander a small handful (optionally available)

In a heavy, shallow casserole, heat the oil over a reasonable warmth, season the rooster with black pepper and somewhat salt, then brown calmly on either side. Take away the rooster and put aside.

In the meantime, peel, halve and thinly slice the onions, each purple and white. Peel and thinly slice the garlic. Whereas the rooster is put aside, add the onions and garlic to the pan, leaving them to cook dinner till smooth and honey colored – about 12-Quarter-hour, with the occasional stir.

Slice the mushrooms, roughly the thickness of a pound coin, then stir them into the onions and allow them to cook dinner for 4 or 5 minutes till they’re taking up somewhat color. (If the bottom of the pan is getting sticky with caramelised cooking juices, then all to the nice.) Add somewhat extra oil if the combination seems to be in any respect dry.

Stir within the cumin, coriander and garam masala, proceed cooking for a few minutes, then add the flour. Cook dinner for a minute or two, then pour within the inventory and produce to the boil. Instantly return the rooster to the pan, modify the warmth to a simmer, season and stir within the mustards, then depart for 25 minutes or so till the rooster is cooked. Switch to a serving dish or shallow bowls and spoon over a ribbon of soured cream. I like so as to add somewhat chopped coriander at this level – it really works completely with the spices – however it’s as much as you.

Observe Nigel on Instagram @NigelSlater

Originally published at Gold Coast News HQ