BBQ Chicken.

I love barbecue.  We have a gas BBQ outside our kitchen door so I cook on there most nights.  We don't have great weather here so we don't always eat outside but I do cook there if it isn't raining too heavily.

I tried a John Torode recipe from Good Food June 2011.  His recipe was for Chicken with Lemons, Sumac and Spiced Yogurt.  I couldn't find any sumac so I used smoked paprika in its place and made a lovely roast chicken on the barbie.

The flesh of the chicken was really tasty, mainly with a garlicky lemony taste and the skin looked beautiful with the golden paprika.  I LOVE crispy chicken skin - all that wonderful flavour and so salty.  I just served it with boiled tatties and some spinach.

And, of course, I used the scrappy bits of meat from the carcass and the stock to make a chicken noodle soup the next day.  Anything with noodles always goes down extremely well with the kids!  And we had a lunch with the chicken legs too.  So, although I balk at the cost of a free range chicken these days, it actually works out as very good value.  Three meals for the family, wonderfully tasty and healthy too. 

Recipe - Chicken With Lemons, Smoked Paprika and Spiced Yogurt (adapted ffrom BBC Good Food June 2011).

Serves 4.

Ingredients - 

1 large free-range chicken

3 lemons, cut into eighths

handful of black, pitted olives

3 small shallots, peeled but left whole

8 garlic cloves, peeled and squashed

2 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tbsp vegetable oil

For the spiced yogurt - 

1 tsp each ground coriander and cumin

1/2 tsp ground turmeric 

1/2 tsp chilli powder

500g pot natural yogurt

1 tsp Harissa paste

1 bunch spring onions, sliced

Method - 

1. Heat gas BBQ (or oven to 200C/180 fan/GM6.  In a bowl mix the lemons, olives, shallots and garlic with half the paprika and some salt.  Scrunch them all together and add 1 tbsp of water.  Open the bird up and pour the mix into the cavity.

2. Take the oil and the rest of the paprika and rub onto the chicken, massaging it into every part possible.  Roast for 1 and 1/2 hours or until cooked through and the juices run clear when a skewer is inserted into the thickest part of the leg.

3. While the chicken is cooking, mix all the ingredients for the spiced yogurt with some salt.  Carve the chicken and serve topped with a dollop of the yogurt.

Recipe - My Chicken Noodle Soup.

Pick all the scraps of chicken from the roasted carcass and set aside then use the carcass, some onions and carrots to make a lovely stock.  Put the stock into a clean pan then throw in the scraps of chicken, some noodles, some sliced pak choi, some sliced mushrooms, sliced spring onions and anything else you fancy.  Boil for a few minutes then eat.  Comfort food but light and healthy.