Recipes:Roast chicken with salsa verde & pilaf

Mark Sargeant shares his chef skills to show you how to make his delicious chicken dish

Ingredients

• 1 x 1.5kg chicken , jointed
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 1 lemon , cut into chunks
• few whole garlic cloves
• olive oil

FOR THE SALSA VERDE

• 2 garlic cloves , roughly chopped
• 4 anchovies (from a sustainable source)
• small bunch coriander , roughly chopped
• small bunch parsley , roughly chopped
• 1 tsp English mustard
• 10 drops Tabasco sauce
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 1 lemon , juiced
• 100ml olive oil

FOR THE PILAF

• butter
• 1 onion , chopped
• 2 garlic cloves , finely sliced
• 3 pieces lemon peel
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 1 mug basmati rice
• 1½ mugs hot chicken stock

  

  1. Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Put the chicken joints, thyme, lemon and garlic cloves in a roasting tray, drizzle with a little olive oil and season then cook for 45 minutes until crisp and golden.
  2. To make the pilaf, heat a large knob of butter in an ovenproof pan. Cook the onion and garlic until softened. Stir in the lemon, thyme and rice and cook for a minute then tip in the stock and stir well. Cover with a lid or a piece of damp baking paper to keep in the moisture then transfer to the oven with the chicken for 20-25 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed. Leave to sit for 3 minutes before serving.
  3. To make the salsa verde, put all the ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor. Whizz to a paste then add the oil gradually until saucy.
  4. Serve the chicken with the pilaf and sauce.

  PER SERVING

  908 kcalories, protein 57,4g, carbohydrate 53,2g, fat 53,3 g, saturated fat 14,2g, fibre 2g, salt 1,84 g