This week’s dish is a summery twist on the traditional Sunday roast chicken. During the colder winter months, sitting down to a roast chicken dinner without all the trimmings is unimaginable. I love to make a good gravy, roast potatoes, plenty of vegetables and sometimes stuffing. It’s real soul food, nourishing and comforting, and leaves the entire house smelling reassuringly of crispy chicken for the rest of the day.
During the summer, however, I don’t want to be fussing in a hot kitchen. I like to just throw a chicken in the oven to roast, and prepare an easy salad.
Like so many people, I grew up with a dislike for all things anise-flavoured. Liquorice, star anise, tarragon and fennel were all on my list of least favourite foods.
But then I began to sip pastis with ice-cold water as an aperitif and loved it. The cloudy drink whets your appetite and anything eaten afterwards tastes twice as nice. Pastis, ouzo, sambuca or arak are all from the same drinks family, strong anise-flavoured spirits with a high alcohol content that turn cloudy in water.
I find a bottle of pastis handy to have in the kitchen for adding a punchy anise flavour to risottos or seafood dishes. Yotam Ottolenghi has an incredible dish where he combines salty black olives with sweet prawns, tomatoes and arak. I highly recommend trying it. It’s an amazing combination of flavours; so unexpected.
I’ve come to love fennel for its fresh taste and crunchy texture. It is very versatile: suitable for eating raw or for juicing or roasting. For this salad I simply slice it very thin – using a mandoline would be ideal – and then combine it with slivers of radish, lemon, olive oil and plenty of black pepper.
I soak the sliced vegetables in iced water beforehand to make them crunchier and more refreshing. The peppery radish is delicious with the roast chicken.
I start this recipe by roasting a whole chicken, but you could just roast leg and thigh joints for a speedier version, or use leftover roast chicken from a previous meal.
It’s always worthwhile buying a nice big free-range or organic chicken. You’ll get a few meals from it and you’ll be more conscious of how you use it, having spent more money.
I don’t always make stock, but whenever I do, it involves triumphantly stacking tubs in the freezer, then using them for soups, stews and gravies. I never regret spending time making a good stock, and it’s the perfect base for a simple noodle soup with young summer vegetables.
CHICKEN WITH FENNEL & RADISH SALAD: SERVES 4
The five ingredients
- 1 whole chicken or leftover roast chicken
- 2 large fennel bulbs
- 1 bunch of radish (250g)
- 2 lemons
- 500g small new potatoes
From the pantry
- Sea salt
- Black pepper
- Olive oil
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place the chicken in a roasting dish, drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Divide the lemon into eight wedges and place into the chicken cavity. Roast for about 1½ hours (exact cooking time depends on the size of the chicken). Every half hour, baste it with its juices as it cooks.
Once cooked, leave to rest on a chopping board, covered with foil, for at least 10 minutes before carving. Skip this step if you are using leftover chicken.
Meanwhile, rinse the potatoes under running water to remove any dirt; there is no need to peel. Cook them whole in a pan of lightly salted water. Simmer until tender (about 10 minutes), then drain and cover with a clean cloth and leave to steam.
Next make the salad. Remove any tough outer layer from the fennel bulb. Trim off the fronds to use later. Thinly slice the fennel crosswise and place in a bowl of ice water. Trim the radish and thinly slice into rounds. Place in the water for at least 15 minutes or until very crisp.
Whisk two tablespoons of lemon juice with four tablespoons of olive oil in a salad bowl. Season with plenty of sea salt and black pepper and add the finely chopped fennel fronds. Once ready to serve, drain the vegetable slices and pat dry on a piece of kitchen paper. Toss in the dressing and serve with generous slices of roast chicken and the boiled potatoes.
Every Thursday we’ll tweet the five ingredients from @lillyhiggins and @irishtimeslife so you can have them ready for Friday. Email givemefive@irishtimes.com with your suggestions for recipes
