Jeremy Lee's Marinated Chicken with Roast Pumpkin Salad
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Ingredients
For the chicken:
6 chicken breasts, wings still attached
1 soup spoon extra virgin olive oil
For the marinade:
4 sprigs of thyme
8 cloves of garlic, peeled
4 branches of rosemary
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
a large bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked
100ml extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
100g Dijon mustard
For the salad:
1kg pumpkin
30ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for the onions and dressing
3 red onions, peeled and sliced into rounds 5mm in thickness
2 soup spoons red wine vinegar, plus extra for the onions and dressing
a small bundle of thyme
a small bunch of sage
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
a big pinch of dried chilli flakes
salt and black pepper
salad leaves, a handful of each, e.g., large-leaf rocket, young spinach, watercress, wild cress, land cress, picked and washed
a bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped
a bunch of mint, leaves picked and torn
75g blanched almonds, roasted at 150°C for 8 minutes or so until golden, then coarsely sliced
Method
For the chicken/marinade:
Place the thyme, garlic, rosemary, onion and black pepper in a food processor and grind to a coarse purée. To this add a handful of parsley leaves at a time, adding a few spoonfuls of olive oil as you go, until you have made a thick green paste. Add the lemon juice and the rest of the olive oil. Stir in the mustard. Evenly spread the marinade over the chicken, cover well and leave to marinate at least overnight.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6.
Heat a large roasting tin in the oven and, when hot, remove, strew with sea salt and a spoonful of oil and lay the chicken skin side down on the salt. Place in the oven and cook for 45 minutes. With care, lift the chicken from the oven, check for doneness, then cover and rest for 20-25 minutes.
Return the chicken to the oven to ensure it is heated thoroughly before serving with the roast pumpkin salad.
Roughly 30-40m preparation time, not counting overnight marinading, and 70m cooking time.
For the salad:
Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas Mark 7.
Split the pumpkin, remove the seeds and cut into wedges. Heat a large roasting tin in the oven for a few minutes, add the extra virgin olive oil and the slices of pumpkin and return to the oven. Cook for 20 minutes, checking from time to time that the slices are not colouring too fast and may need turning. Add a little more oil if necessary.
Meanwhile, place a wide griddle or frying pan on a moderate heat, and lay the red onions in the heated pan to colour well. Cook for 5-8 minutes, then turn and repeat for a further 3-4 minutes. Remove the onions to a dish, cover and set aside for 5 minutes. Remove the cover and discard any burnt pieces of onion. Lightly dress with 1 soup spoon of vinegar and 2 soup spoons of extra virgin olive oil.
Pick the thyme and sage leaves and chop small, then mix with the garlic, lemon zest and chilli flakes. Season with salt and black pepper. Remove the pumpkin from the oven and insert a knife into the slices, which should offer no resistance. If still firm, return to the oven for a further 5-10 minutes.
Strew the herb seasoning over the roast pumpkin. Pour over 1 soup spoon of vinegar. To assemble the dish, carve each chicken breast in three and keep warm. Tumble all the leaves onto a big dish. Lay the pumpkin on the leaves, along with any juices still in the tin, and scatter the onion over the pumpkin. Tumble on the slices of chicken. Strew the mint leaves, parsley and sliced almonds over the salad, finishing with one last fluffy of vinegar and olive oil.
Roughly 30m preparation time and 45m cooking time.
Recipe from ‘Cooking Simply and Well, For One or Many’ by Jeremy Lee published by 4th Estate
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