Spanish Roast Chicken and Parsley Smashed Potatoes
This is a recipe inspired by the Roast Chicken cooked by Jamie Oliver which can be found here. It is however, my version which creates a much richer sauce and has a stronger Chorizo flavour.
To make this recipe, you will need:
For the chicken
- 1 whole chicken (approx. 1.2Kg)
- 1 medium sized chorizo
- 2 onions
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 handfuls of green olives (pitted)
- 1 small bottle of Spanish red wine
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 medium sized lemon
- Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
For the Potatoes
- Approx 20 baby new potatoes
- 1 small handful of coursely chopped parsley
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 tbsp butter
- Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Firstly, place the chicken, the bay leaves and around 1 tablespoon of salt in a large bowl (don't worry, none of the salt goes in the end product!). Next, fill up the bowl with cold water until the chicken is completely submerged. This technique is called brining, and it uses a salt solution to tenderise the meat, and allow any flavours to penetrate much more deeply. Brining also keeps the meat nice and tender once it's cooked.
Next, roughly slice the chorizo into around 1cm slices, and place into a non-stick saucepan over an extremely low heat with a generous glug of olive oil. Cook the chorizo this way for around 20 minutes. This method of slow cooking the chorizo over a low heat enables more of the spicy juices to be rendered out, meaning that the spices don't burn before you can use them to impart flavour to the chicken. After about 20 minutes you should see a marked difference in the colour of the olive oil.
Once the chorizo has rendered out most of its incredible oils, add the onions and garlic, and sweat down until translucent. Then remove about two thirds of the onion, garlic and chorizo mixture and roughly chop with one handful of the green olives ready to stuff the chicken later.
Now you can add the wine and the other handful of the olives, and simmer until the wine has reduced by half.
It's now time to roast the chicken. Firstly, remove it from the brine, and pat dry with kitchen paper. Next, stuff with about a large handful of the chopped stuffing mixture, and seal the cavity with the lemon, which you have rolled on the sideboard to release the juices and oils, and pricked all over with a sharp knife.
Place the chicken in a roasting tray and pour over the sauce, topping with the rest of the stuffing mixture.
Put the chicken into a preheated oven at 240C, and immediately reduce the heat to 200C, and roast for approximately 1 hour, or until the juices run clear.
At this point, you may want to put the potatoes on. Simply rub the potatoes with olive oil, salt and freshly cracked black pepper, and place into the same oven as the chicken.
While the potatoes are cooking, mix the butter, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl and microwave for approximately 1 minute.
Once the potatoes have been in the oven for approximately 45 minutes, remove from the oven, and roughly smash them up with a potato masher. Then mix in the parsley and garlic butter, and place back in the oven for the last 15 minutes, reducing the heat to 160C.
Once the chicken and potatoes have finished cooking, remove from the oven, cover with foil, and rest the chicken for around 15 minutes, then carve, and serve with the potatoes and some steamed broccoli.
Enjoy.
