The word on the street is that Prince Harry proposed to Meghan Markle over a home cooked roast chook. So with the royal wedding fast approaching I thought it fitting to cook some dinners inspired by some of my favourite British chefs, starting with a chicken.
Everyone knows I’m a fan of Jamie (haven’t forgotten you Rick) and Jamie’s 5 ingredients cookbook is one of his best. I flick through it often to get inspiration and have made many of the meals, tweaking them as I go. The recipes are so easy and I really like the clear pictures of ingredients on each page. They inspire me to throw different things in to my supermarket trolley each week.
This roast chicken is delicious. I’ve followed Jamie’s recipe nearly to a T but my oven must be slower than his because I cooked it for longer than an hour, which Jamie suggests. I also served it with some natural yoghurt, jazzed up with a little chilli, lemon, salt and pepper.
The girls ate it too which is always pleasing. Charlotte leaned in closely to the chicken and said “hmm that’s a lovely smell”. Too cute. Like mother, like daughter.
I reckon this chook would be good enough for a wedding proposal any day.
jamie’s roast tikka chicken (serves 4)
1 x 1.2kg whole chicken
5 x potatoes, peeled and cut in to 3cm chunks
1 x small cauliflower, chopped in to chunks a little larger than the potatoes
1 x bunch of fresh coriander
2 x tablespoons of tikka curry paste
1 x tablespoon of olive oil
1 x tablespoon of red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
yoghurt dip, to serve
A couple of tablespoons of natural yoghurt
Squeeze of fresh lemon
1/4 teaspoon of chilli, from a jar
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
- *Parboil the potatoes in a large saucepan of salted boiling water. You don’t want them completely soft – you just want to help them along a bit. (This step is optional – see Lo’s tips below).
- In a large baking tray, toss the potatoes and cauliflower together. Season well with salt and pepper and drizzle the vinegar and olive oil over the top, mixing with your hands.
- Give the bunch of coriander a really good wash (there is often dirt hiding in the stems). Slice the coriander stems finely and throw in to the veggie tray, reserving the leaves for garnishing later.
- Place the chicken on top of the vege and using your hands, rub the curry paste in to the chicken, massaging it in to all of the nooks and crannies. (Don’t forget to turn the chook over and rub it in to the back too).
- Place the vege tray on the bottom shelf in the oven and place the chook directly on to the oven rack above, making sure that it is lined up so that all of the juices drop down and are caught in the vege tray.
- Bake in the oven for 1 1/2 hours or until the chicken is cooked and the veggies are nice and soft on the inside but crispy on the outside. (To check that the chicken is cooked, insert a skewer or knife in to the centre of the chicken and the juices should run clear).
- To make the yoghurt dressing, simply mix the yoghurt, fresh lemon juice, chilli and salt and pepper together with a fork.
- Carry the chicken and vege to the table and serve with the yoghurt dressing, sprinkled with loads of fresh coriander leaves.
Lo’s tips
- *This step is optional. Jamie doesn’t do it in his recipe and you are by all means able to cook the spuds from scratch, just by throwing them in with the cauliflower raw. I just find that my potatoes always take longer to cook than he says.
This image below reminds me of my favourite childhood book – ‘Peepo’ by Janet & Allan Ahlberg. The clothes drying in front of the fire! If you know the book – you’ll know what I mean.
If you make this chicken please leave your comments below. xx
lo's kitchen 
Corks doesn’t like coriander and he loves this meal with the coriander stems roasted w the vege and he just didn’t have the fresh coriander leaves on top
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Made this for dinner and it was DELICIOUS! My chicken was bigger than the recipe said so I used more curry paste. My spuds weren’t crisping up either, but I poured out some of the juices from the pan half way through which seemed to do the trick. The yoghurt dressing was scrummy (heeeeaps of lemon juice) and I also served it with peas. 10/10
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Oh thanks for the tips Ali. Love the sound of serving it with peas and glad the yoghurt addition worked. I know in my bones that Jamie would of served his with yoghurt too if this recipe didn’t come from a cookbook where you were only allowed 5 ingredients!
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A friend made this for dinner and I loved it- the cauliflower soaked up the flavour beautifully
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Thank you Grace. Lucky you!
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A real crowd pleaser
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Thanks Stephanie. You’ve inspired me to cook this again!
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