The Alternative Roast
Slow Roast Chicken served with a Vegetable Stew and Dumplings
Servings: 4 (to 6)
Ingredients
Roast Chicken
- 1 large whole chicken (1.8kg - 2kg)
- 1 lemon (halved)
- 2 cloves garlic (crushed - for rubbing on the chicken)
- Fresh mixed herbs roasting herbs (sage, thyme and rosemary - usually sold as a packet of roasting herbs)
- 2 tbsp butter (room tempertaure)
- Drizzle of olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Vegetable Casserole
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic (crushed)
- 400 g new potatoes (washed and halved)
- 1/2 tbsp plain flour
- 2 medium leeks (washed and chopped into 2 inch chunks)
- 4 parsnips (washed, peeled and chopped into 3 inch chunks)
- 300 g Chantenay carrots (washed and halved)
- 250 g mushrooms (cleaned and quartered)
- 8 stalks purple sprouting broccoli
- 225 ml white wine
- 1.5 litre chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- Salt and pepper (I sometime use crushed / ground pink peppercorns as an alternative which gives a lovely note to the stew)
Dumplings
- 140 g chilled butter (chopped into small cubes)
- 250 g self-raising flour
- 1 -2 tbsps grated parmesan
- 125 ml water
- Chopped fresh parsley for the dumplings and garnish
Instructions
Prepare and Roast the Chicken
- Preheat oven to 120°C (fan) / 140°C (conventional) / gas mark 1.
- Place herbs in chicken’s cavity and around the chicken in a roasting tray. Add lemon halves and garlic bulbs to the tray.
- Crush 2 garlic cloves and add to butter. Rub into chicken and drizzle with olive oil. Season and place in oven for 3 hrs. After it has been in the oven for 90 mins, baste with the juices and return to the oven.
- About 15 mins before the end of the cooking time for the roast chicken, increase heat to 200°C (fan) / 220°C (conventional) / gas mark 7 to crisp skin. Once the skin is crispy, to your liking, leave to rest uncovered out of the oven for 15 mins.
Prepare and Cook the Vegetable Stew
- While chicken is in the oven, heat oil in a casserole dish or other dish which can be placed in an oven (approx 3 litres capacity) over medium heat.
- Add potatoes and cook for about 5 mins. Add flour and mix - this will help to thicken the gravy for the vegetable casserole.
- Then add vegetables, with the slowest cooking veg going in first, with around 2 minute intervals between each addition (carrots, parsnips, leeks, mushrooms). Hold back on the broccoli for now.
- Add bay leaves, thyme leaves and garlic and mix. Add wine, if using. Then add the stock and lower the heat and let simmer until vegetables are soft.
- Season to taste. You can put the lid on the casserole once simmering or if you have cooked the casserole early on and intend to reheat prior to adding the dumplings.
Prepare the Dumplings
- Rub butter into flour until it looks like bread crumbs. Add chopped parsley and parmesan. Add water and form into a dough. Divide and make 8 balls.
- While the stew is simmering and about 5 mins before increasing the temperature of the oven to crisp the chicken skin, remove the lid of the casserole dish (you will have no further need for it during the remaining cooking steps). Add broccoli and dumplings and let the stew simmer.
- Place stew in oven with chicken (200°C (fan) / 220°C (conventional) / gas mark 7) 15 minutes before roast chicken has finished cooking. Check in on dumplings half-way through cooking time i.e. when you take the chicken out to rest.
- Leave stew in oven as the chicken is resting for a further 15 mins (overall about 30 mins in the oven) for dumplings to turn golden.
Serve The Alternative Roast
- Serve vegetable stew with roast chicken and a side of cranberry sauce. Sprinkle the chicken and stew with some finely chopped parsley. Ladle vegetable stew and dumplings into pasta-style bowls, place a portion of carved chicken on top with a dollop of cranberry sauce and tuck away.