Long Friday in Jesmond, Newcastle received the award for Best Local Restaurant in Yorkshire and the North East in this year's list. The generous, down-to-earth cooking that defines this much-loved local restaurant inspired owner Anna Hedworth's cookbook, Service. Here she shares one of her most loved recipes from it.
On a Saturday afternoon we stuff chickens for a Sunday. We use a mix of crème fraîche, lots of salt and pepper, and either fresh herbs or this ’nduja version, gently prising away the skin so we can fill the gap between the breast and the skin with a thick layer of crème fraîche. As it cooks this melts into the meat, making it tender, juicy and packed with flavour. As you carve the chicken at the table everything comes together, an amazing sauce of chicken juices, butter, crème fraîche and ’nduja, to spoon back over the bird, a joy to behold. Smiling faces all around the dining room.
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INGREDIENTS
Serves 4
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1 large free-range chicken
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100g (1¾oz) ’nduja
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150g (3½oz) crème fraîche or sour cream
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salt and pepper
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½ onion
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½ lemon
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25g (1oz) butter
METHOD
Remove the chicken from the refrigerator 30 minutes before you want to cook. Depending on how firm your ’nduja is, you can mix it into the crème fraîche by hand or in a small blender, adding salt and pepper to taste. Gently pull the chicken skin away from the breast, from the neck end, without tearing it, opening it up with your finger all the way to the back of the bird.
Then start to spoon the crème fraîche into the gap you have created, pushing the crème fraîche further in and flattening it out so that it is evenly spread over the whole of the top of the bird.
Preheat the oven to 200°C fan/220°C/425°F/Gas mark 7. Place the onion half inside the cavity of the bird, then squeeze the lemon all over the chicken skin and place the hull inside the cavity too. Cut the butter into thin slices and place all over the outside of the chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the bird in a roasting tin and roast for 15 minutes, get it out and baste with the buttery juices, then turn down the temperature to 180°C fan/200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6 for a further 30-45 minutes. Rest the chicken for 10 minutes when it is done.
Serve the chicken in the middle of the table in its roasting tin. Drain off the chicken cooking juices first, as they produce the most delicious gravy, which is excellent spooned over crispy roast potatoes. Serve with roast potatoes and a green salad and some aioli on the side.
This recipe is taken from Service: One Day in a Restaurant, Over 150 Recipes to Cook at Home by Anna Hedworth, published by Quadrille Publishing limited. Buy the book here.
