Speedy Roast Chicken

It was our last day in the holiday cottage, which meant supper needed to include all perishables left in our fridge (I hate waste!) The plan was to do a roast chicken; one of our weekly favourites that doesn’t require a lot of thought and effort. We didn’t get home from our fun and adventures until after 5:00, and I realised that roast chicken was never going to happen before the kids’ bedtime. My husband suggested that we joint the chicken to help shorten the cooking time. He’s quite clever in the kitchen, really. Why doesn’t he cook more often? I need to investigate this.

Jointing a chicken isn’t too difficult, but not for the easily queasy. It involves bending limbs in awkward positions and popping joints out, but it’s worth it, honestly! Search for a video to help guide you through it. To start, pull the leg out to the side as far as possible and make a cut near the joint. Don’t try to hack your way through the bone; it should just pop out with a bit of gentle coaxing as you bend it and cut through the skin. Use the same technique on the wing, then repeat on the other side. Remove the breast meat, cutting as close to the bone as you can. I keep the carcass for soup stock – just pop it in a bag and stick it in the freezer until you’re ready to make the stock. It’s so much cheaper to cut up the portions yourself, but of course if it’s not your cup of tea, just use chicken pieces (preferably on the bone with the skin on, to add as much flavour as possible and to keep the chicken nice and moist.)

I stuck my head in the fridge and grabbed things that I thought would taste good with chicken. As with most recipes I use, you can substitute most of the ingredients with whatever you happen to have on hand. Don’t have lemon? Use an orange. Don’t have olives? Use capers. Don’t have cherry tomatoes? Use tomatoes from a tin. Have herbs? Chuck ‘em in. Don’t have prosciutto? Use bacon. Everything is better with bacon. Fact.

One chicken fed all five of us very comfortably. If we hadn’t eaten all the potatoes the night before, I would have chopped up a few and added them to the tin, too. I used prosecco because I had some left over from my birthday (I know, I know – this NEVER normally happens), but any nice white wine will work or you can use some stock instead.