If you fancy trying Spanish style roast at home, here’s an easy recipe to try. The Spanish don’t cook roast potatoes as we do – roasted around the meat. To accompany the chicken, they serve a mixture of roasted vegetables such as aubergines, carrots, courgettes, red onions, garlic cloves and potatoes. These are tossed in olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and black pepper and roasted in a large square dish for about 30 – 40 minutes on a high heat.
You don’t need gravy with this dish, as the vegetables and meat are very moist, but if you can’t face a roast without gravy, go ahead and make some with the giblets. Buen Provecho!
Ingredients for 4 people
- I chicken, about 1.5kg, with giblets removed
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2tbsps olive oil
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp freeze dried parsley
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 100g plum cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 medium red pepper, cut into rough chunks
- 100g chorizo sausage, cut into 1” slices
- 600g tin of butter beans, drained
- 4 – 6 cloves of garlic, sliced
Wash chicken thoroughly and dry with kitchen paper. Cover with olive oil and seasonings, making sure some seasoning goes inside the cavity of the chicken to allow the flavours to penetrate thoroughly. Roast in a 180 degree oven for an hour, loosely covered with foil so the chicken doesn’t dry out.
Remove chicken from roasting tin and pour meat juices into a jug. Now add tomatoes, pepper, garlic chorizos and butter beans to the roasting tin. Place chicken on top and baste with some of the meat juices. Don’t use too much, or the vegetables and chorizo mixture will become greasy, and you need it for later. Don’t replace the foil.
Cook for another 40 minutes to an hour, until the juices from the chicken run clear when you pierce the thigh with a skewer. Check every 20 minutes in case chicken needs basting again.
When the chicken is cooked, remove from oven and allow to rest while you mash the tomatoes, butter beans, pepper and garlic. Now you know why I didn’t want you to get them too greasy!
Serve chicken with vegetable mash, chorizo slices and roasted vegetables.