[london.food] Hot Chick

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From: Simon Batistoni
Subject: [london.food] Hot Chick
Date: 02:30 on 15 Jun 2004
Well, actually it was Poussin, but why ruin a good subject line and a
chance to check the rabidity of your spam filters?

Anyway, I was bored tonight and passing by a Tesco Metro, where they
had Poussin on "two for 3.50". I love these things - it's like a whole
roast chicken, but just the right size for a sad, lonely loser like me
to eat on his own (it's also really easy to cook them for up to about
8 - you can fit that many in a roasting tin).

I decided to go for a vaguely barbecuey feel, and marinaded the little
sucker for an hour before cooking. The marinade was prepared using my
patented "grab stuff that's in the cupboard; mix together till it
tastes good" method.

Tonight's mixture consisted of, approximately:

4 tbsp Chinese Cooking Wine
2 tbsp Nando's Hot Peri-Peri sauce
4 tbsp Lingham's Sweet Chili Sauce [0]
1 tbsp Worcester Sauce
1 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce

And I had a can of beer open so I bunged in a quick glug of that,
because beer makes things good. If I ever wrote a cookery book, it
would centre around the concept of beer in cooking. I can see it now -
"The Wasted Chef"...

Aaaanyway...

I also put 4 cloves of garlic inside the cavity of the bird.

After marinading, I took the bird, shoved it in a roasting tin and
stuck it in the (fan) oven at 220 deg. c. for 25 minutes. 

I then took the remaining marinade and simmered it for about 10
minutes to reduce and thicken before leaving it to cool.

The bird needed basting with oil once - the skin started crisping too
soon due to the fan.

After 25 minutes, I covered the poussin with the reduced marinade (now
more of a sticky glaze), and roasted for about another 15 minutes on
200 deg. c.

The end result was really rather good - the skin was moist and spicy,
whilst the rest of the meat was nicely flavoured by the marinade
whilst still tasting pleasantly of
chicken-with-a-touch-more-game. There was a hint of garlic in there
too, but it was very much a subtle note.

I served it with corn on the cob, because

a) It's the easiest thing in the world to cook (boil for 7 mins,
   serve)
b) It was on two for one in Tescos and I'm a lazy shopper.

I now have another lot of corn cobs and another poussin to cook. If I
come up with a wildly different marinade, I shall inform you all with
glee...

sb

[0] This stuff is fantastic. I picked it off the shelf at random one
day, I think in the same Tesco Metro (Covent Garden). It's got a
bright yellow label, and is the best sweet chili sauce I've ever had.

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