One pan roast chicken à la Pieri

Nothing like lazing about watching re-runs of Gondola on the Murray (12.30pm Saturdays on ABC2) for inspiration. With a mess of produce, not a great deal of time, and a few hungry mouths to feed, this looked failsafe. And like much great Italian cuisine, the whole is always more than the sum of the parts.

Political aspirant Snr Pieri cooked this for a picnic, but after a day of planting spring flowers it looked like a solution that would cook itself for dinner while we all enjoyed a lingering aperitif, surveying our hard work, as the Spring sun shrivelled away.

Pre heat the oven to 170°C. Joint or quarter 2 small organic chickens. In a very large oiled roasting pan lay the chicken pieces and in between scatter a selection of vegetables: A chopped fennel bulb, a few quartered onions, 2-3 peeled potatoes cut in thin wedges, or some halved chat potatoes, leeks, root vegetables – whatever you have around and in season. Add in 6 unpeeled garlic cloves. Scatter over a selection of chopped fresh herbs: the fennel tops, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, parsley. Throw in a decent glug of white wine – at least 250 mls – and drizzle with some olive oil. Season with sea salt and black pepper, and sprinkle over a few handfuls of breadcrumbs. Sparingly ladle over about 4-5 tablespoons of tomato passata. Cover tightly with a greased sheet of foil and bake for 1 hour. After an hour, remove the foil and bake for a further 20 minutes or until the chicken is golden. Serve straight from the baking dish with a salad or fresh blanched spring vegetables. The chicken juices and vege juices will combine with the wine and oil to produce a wonderful sauce in the bottom of the roasting dish, so ladle this over each serving.

If you have leftovers, remove the chicken from the bone, re-heat the leftover chicken, sauce and veges together and stir hot shell-shaped pasta like orecchiette through the sauce, with a generous shaving of parmesan.


Min supervises the pansies