My little slow cooker is a new addition to the kitchen,
but I love it, because it’s so versatile – you can make a whole range of dishes
in it. Roast chicken is my latest attempt, and it resulted in beautifully
cooked, tender, juicy chicken (although I did pop it in the oven with the
potatoes, for a bit at the end, to crisp up the skin). I used a poussin because
my slow cooker is quite small, so of course you could use a big chicken, but
actually I found it was the perfect size to serve two people.
Ingredients
1 poussin (about 450g)
1 lemon
4 fat cloves of garlic
Dried rosemary and oregano
Salt and black pepper
About 20g butter, softened
Olive oil
2 large fresh tomatoes
2 large potatoes
Lard, to roast the potatoes
Serves 2
First of all, pop your slow cooker on to warm up (see the
instruction manual for more information). In the meantime, cut a few slices of
lemon, and peel the garlic. With the flat of a knife blade, crush three of the
garlic cloves (keep the last one for the tomatoes). When the slow cooker is
ready, spread the garlic and lemon slices across the bottom, then pop the
poussin on top. Place the butter on the breast and spread roughly with a knife
(don’t worry too much about making it neat), then sprinkle generously with
salt, pepper and rosemary. Leave to cook for three and a half hours.
Once the time is up for the roast chicken, move the roast
potatoes down to the bottom shelf of the oven and put the chicken on the top
shelf (my slow cooker pot can go straight into the oven, but check the instruction
manual for yours). Slice the tomatoes in half. Crush the remaining garlic clove
and sprinkle on top, with a little dried oregano, black pepper and olive oil.
Pop them into a roasting tin and place on the top shelf of the oven, next to
the chicken, for about 20 minutes.
 |
The roast tomatoes are bursting with
rich flavours & make a perfect
condiment for the chicken |
When twenty minutes are up, the chicken should have
crisped up a little, the tomatoes should be softened and smelling delicious,
and the roast potatoes should be perfect and golden. The final thing to do is
carve the poussin. Using a long sharp knife, cut the legs off first and then
the thighs, inserting the knife into the joint between the bones (you’ll
probably find when you pull the legs or thighs out that they almost come away
without cutting). Next, make a cut down the centre of the breast and then cut
slices at an angle on either side until you’ve removed all the meat. Serve up a
generous plateful and wash down with a glass of good quality red wine.
Ingredients