Sweet and Spicy Roast Chicken Drumsticks

There are always going to be nights when we are tired, or for some other reason we cannot be bothered cooking anything complex and we just want to put something simple in the oven for our dinner. We want comfort food, that simply lets us sit back and enjoy it, without putting a great deal of work in to the preparation. The temptation in these circumstances is to have a microwaveable dinner, or even a takeaway, but this is one incredibly simple recipe which shows that to be unnecessary. It shows that healthy, wholesome cooking is possible, even in such circumstances. Have a look at how incredibly simple this delicious roast chicken recipe actually is...

Ingredients for One Person

6 small chicken drumsticks
1 tbsp liquid honey
1 tsp hot chilli powder
Salt and black pepper
Fresh basil leaves or other herb for garnish (optional)

Method

Add the chilli powder and honey to a large bowl or basin and season with salt and pepper. Stir to form a smooth paste. Add the chicken drumsticks and carefully stir them around in the mix to ensure even coating. Cover and leave them to marinate while your oven preheats to 375F/190C/Gas Mark 5. Note that this can be done a couple of hours in advance, if time permits, and the legs refrigerated. This would allow the flavours of the marinade to infuse the meat to even greater effect.

When the oven is heated, spread the legs and marinade evenly on a deep baking tray. Place in to the oven for thirty minutes, turning the drumsticks with cooking tongs after fifteen minutes.

It should be remembered, as with any meat, that it is important to allow the chicken drumsticks to rest when they are removed from the oven. This is best achieved by simply sitting the tray on the hob and covering it carefully with foil, wearing oven gloves, for ten to fifteen minutes. The chicken drumsticks can then be plated and eaten immediately or left to cool and enjoyed cold.

Lemon, Rosemary and Thyme Roast Chicken with Roast Potatoes

Roast chicken is a magnificent dinner dish at any time of year but especially on a cold, snowy night. The problem I often find with roast chicken, however, is that too many people over-complicate the roasting process. There is often too much emphasis placed on how to season the chicken, how and whether to stuff it and even how often to baste it. The preparation method I have used for this lemon, rosemary and thyme roasted chicken truly could not be much simpler and I hope to convince you that roasting a chicken need not be much more complicated than would have been boiling the egg from which it once hatched...

When roasting this chicken, I used simply the following:

1 4lb free range, organic chicken
1 whole, fresh lemon
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme

While the oven preheated to 375F/190C/Gas mark 5, I submerged the lemon in a pot of boiling water, where I let it simmer for ten minutes. I put the rosemary and thyme on a dessert spoon, which I then carefully inserted in to the cavity of the chicken and gently shook it around, to disperse the herbs as evenly as possible. After ten minutes, I removed the lemon from the water with a fork and held it in place on a chopping board in this way while I carefully pierced it several times with another fork. I then put it in to the cavity of the chicken and the chicken on to a non-stick baking/roasting tray. Heating the lemon in this way has the effect of causing the juices to escape and steam heat the chicken from the outset of the cooking process. I then put the tray in to the oven - no salt, no butter, no oil - for twenty minutes per pound and twenty minutes over, in this instance one hour and forty minutes. I did not baste the chicken, nor open the oven at all while it was cooking.

The roast potatoes which I served with the chicken were roasted in the fat of the chicken but do require to be cooked beforehand. They are small, new potatoes, so I added them (washed but unpeeled) to some cold, salted water as soon as the chicken was in the oven and brought the water to a boil. I then reduced the heat to allow them to simmer for half an hour. They were then drained and submersed in cold water until a few minutes before the chicken was ready. This process serves to expand and then contract the flesh, leaving the skins easily removable by hand. This takes seconds per potato as it literally just slips off the flesh by rubbing it with your thumb and should be done immediately prior to removing the chicken from the oven, otherwise the potato flesh will start to go black.

When the chicken is removed from the oven, it must be left to rest. If you are not using the chicken fat to roast potatoes, simply leave the chicken in the roasting tray and cover that with foil. If you are using the tray and fat to roast your potatoes, transfer the chicken to a heated dish, cover it with foil for fifteen minutes and leave it alone. Add the potatoes to the fat, swirl them around and stick the tray back in to the oven for around fifteen minutes.

When the chicken has rested, you may wish to carve it in a traditional sense. I prefer not to, especially with such a small bird. I like to separate it in to breast fillets, legs and thighs and wings. I do this with a sharp carving knife by cutting through the skin and flesh and the leg/thigh and wing joints before pulling them free and serving them as a choice of chunky and enjoyable chicken pieces. The way I do this is pretty similar to the way in which I butcher a whole chicken.

The skinned potatoes will take about fifteen to twenty minutes to cook in the chicken fat, which is perfect timing for carving (in whatever form) and serving your chicken. The peas are frozen and were simply added to boiling water for a few minutes before being drained and served immediately.