Friday, April 25, 2008

Jamie Oliver's Roast Chicken with Tomatoes and Basil


I've been crushing on Jamie Oliver pretty hard lately. Curiously though it's not him in particular, it's his show Jamie at Home. I could never get into his show Naked Chef. I think it had something to do with his hyperactivity, it drove me nuts. However when he went on his campaign for British School Dinners, I started to warm up to him. And then Jamie at Home came along...Jamie has officially won my heart. I envy the organic garden he keeps and look forward to having something similar of my own in the future. The best part of the show is that every recipe is full of superb ingredients combined with simple cooking that allow the quality of the ingredients to do the work.

Besides my beloved cast iron skillet, another birthday gift from my boyfriend was the Jamie at Home Cookbook. I think I fell in love a little more with the whole Jamie Oliver thing (and my boyfriend for getting it for me) after reading the book. The book is fantastic, it's full of rustic and delicious recipes. This chicken dish is not included in the book but I've seen it on the show and it looked so good. Indeed it is. The chicken roasts juicy and tender and the tomatoes caramelize to create an amazing flavor. This dish is by far one of our top favorite meals, I make it all the time. I am so excited to begin my exploration of all the wonderful dishes in the book and I can't wait to share them with you.

RECIPE courtesy of Jamie's Dinners:
4 chicken legs, preferably free-range or organic, jointed
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a big bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
2 big handfuls of red and yellow cherry tomatoes, halved, and ripe plum tomatoes, quartered
1 whole bulb of garlic, broken up into cloves
1 fresh red chili, finely chopped
olive oil

optional:
1 x 410g tin of cannellini beans, drained
2 handfuls of new potatoes, scrubbed (my favorite, I throw them into the mix and roast them along with everything else.)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Season your chicken pieces all over and put them into a snug-fitting pan in one layer. Throw in all the basil leaves* and stalks, then chuck in your tomatoes. Scatter the garlic cloves into the pan with the chopped chili and drizzle over some olive oil. Mix around a bit, pushing the tomatoes underneath. Place in the oven for 1½ hours, turning the tomatoes halfway through, until the chicken skin is crisp and the meat falls off the bone.

If you fancy, you can add some drained cannellini beans or some sliced new potatoes to the pan and cook them with the chicken. Or you can serve the chicken with some simple mashed potato. Squeeze the garlic out of the skins before serving. You could even make it part of a pasta dish – remove the chicken meat from the bone and shred it, then toss into a bowl of linguine or spaghetti and serve at once.

NOTE: I always add the basil in the last 15 minutes of cooking to avoid it turning black.

5 comments:

MrsDocChuck said...

Yeah, I know what you mean about Jamie. But, here I am stuck with "Big Bear" (all 437 pounds of him) in a trailer house in Florida.

But, that's MY problem.

Anyway, your chicken dish looked great and you have insprired me to try it. Thanks.

My Sweet & Saucy said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog! This chicken dish by Jamie looks so tasty! It's dinner time where I am at and the photo is calling out to me!

Candyce P. said...

This looks delicious! I'm definitely going to give this recipe a try - hopefully my chicken will look as beautiful as yours does! :)

DocChuck said...

Pulleazze, disregard the comments by "mrsdocchuck".

I AM the person who she calls "Big Bear", and, YES I let her move into my trailer house a few months ago when the "authorities" were giving her some problems.

She has been harassing so many people on the internet, using SO many false names, and insulting SO many people . . . but I was just trying to keep her out of jail.

Anyway, I am so sorry that she tried to mess up your blog. If you want to email me, I will tell you about her rap sheet and her medical problems since she left her hometown of Brooklyn, NY.

KingBigBear
KingBigBear@gmail.com

Madeline said...

Hi my sweet & saucy,

You're desserts look amazing! As for this chicken, it really is one of my personal favorites. It's so simple but full of flavor I just love it.

Hi candyce,

Your dishes look fantastic. I doubt you'll have any problems getting the chicken to look good. Anyway, this dish kind of cooks itself so I can't take much credit for it!

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