Oktoberfest Chicken

This recipe which I edited slightly from the version in the Oktoberfest Insider Guide by Sabine Kafer, comes from my beer and food book An Appetite for Ale. The secret is the lavish last minute slathering with butter.

Serves 2
1 small chicken (about 1.2kg or 2lb 10 oz. Geitl stresses the importance of this being dry-plucked)
Salt and pepper
A good handful of fresh parsley with the stalks
50g (2 oz) unsalted butter

An hour before roasting season the chicken generously with pepper and salt “so that even the preparation makes your mouth water” Wash the parsley, shake dry, chop roughly and stuff inside the chicken. If you have a rotisserie attachment in your oven preheat the oven to 220°C/425° F/Gas 7, skewer the chicken on the spit and roast for about an hour.

Alternatively preheat the oven to 200° C, and put the bird breast side downwards in a roasting tin. (Geitl recommends not using a fan oven or fan oven setting for this as it will dry the meat out. Not sure I agree about that.). Roast for about 30 minutes then turn the bird breast upwards and finish cooking (allow 25 minutes per pound in total - just over an hour for a bird of this size.)

Either way - and this is crucial - 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time the bird should be coated with fresh, soft but not runny butter. Repeat this process 4-5 times. To check if the chicken is ready stick a skewer or the point of a sharp knife into the thickest part of the leg. The juices should run clear. Cut the chicken in half down the breastbone and serve half a portion each.

Best beer matches: At the Oktoberfest it would be served with a light Helles beer but I prefer it with a classic Oktoberfest Märzen or a golden lager like Budweiser Budvar.

Do also make this delicious Oktoberfest potato salad

Photograph © Miredi at fotolia.com

Roast harissa butter chicken and cracked wheat

What do you do if it's a perfect summer day and you still want a Sunday roast? Make this fabulous recipe from Georgie Hayden's wonderful book Stirring Slowly, one of my favourite books of last year

Georgie writes: "This is a perfect Sunday dinner if you want something a little different but still really special. Once you’ve cooked your chicken this way I guarantee you’ll be converted, and any leftover buttery chicken is epic in a sandwich the next day.

Serves 4

4 garlic cloves, peeled

1 preserved lemon

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika

2 tablespoons harissa

a bunch of coriander

a bunch of parsley

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

80g butter, at room temperature

olive oil

1 x 1.6kg chicken

1 lemon

425ml fresh chicken stock

1 onion

2 tomatoes

350g bulgur wheat

Greek yoghurt, to serve

Preheat your oven to 190°C/gas 5. Peel the garlic. Halve the preserved lemon and remove the seeds. In a dry frying pan toast the cumin and coriander seeds until lightly toasted. Place in a food processor along with the paprika, preserved lemon, harissa, half the coriander and parsley (stalks and all) and the garlic. Season well and blitz to a paste. Add the butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and pulse until smooth.

Use your hands to carefully prise the chicken skin away from each breast, to create a pocket. Slash the skin on the thighs and rub the butter all over – under the skin mainly and all over the top. Halve the lemon and pop it into the chicken cavity, then place in a small snug-fitting roasting tray. Put it into the oven and roast for around 1¼ hours, or until golden and crisp but cooked through – check that the juices run clear around the thigh area.

Baste the chicken a couple of times during cooking with the buttery juices in the tray.

When the chicken has about 20 minutes left to cook, start the bulgur wheat. Heat your chicken stock in a medium pan. Meanwhile peel and finely chop the onion, and deseed and finely chop the tomatoes. Pour a glug of olive oil into a saucepan and put on a medium-low heat. Add the onion and sauté for 10 minutes, until soft. Add the tomatoes and cook for a further 5 minutes, then add the bulgur wheat. Stir for a minute, then add the hot chicken stock and season lightly. Bring to the boil, pop onthe lid, then reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 8 minutes, until the wheat is cooked through and fluffy, then remove from the heat. Cover the pan with a tea towel and put a lid on top to keep it warm. Chop the rest of the coriander and parsley leaves and stir through the bulgur wheat.

When the chicken is ready, leave to rest for 10 minutes, then squeeze over the lemon from the cavity and carve it up – you can carve traditionally or shred the meat into the buttery juices to keep the meat insanely moist.

Serve with the bulgur wheat and tangy thick Greek yoghurt.

What to drink: I'd personally go for a strong dry rosé with this - Spain does some good ones - but you could also drink a medium-bodied juicy Rhône or Languedoc red or even a crisp white like an assyrtiko.

Extracted from Stirring Slowly by Georgina Hayden, published by Square Peg in hardback at £20

Honey-roast chicken with roast sweet potatoes

You may recognise this shot as one of the rolling images on our home page which were taken by photographer Jason Ingram and styled by Genevieve Taylor. The dish was so delicious I had to pass on the recipe which comes from Louise Walker's Aga Roast.

You don't have to have an Aga to make it, by the way - you can cook it in a conventional oven.

Serves 6

1.75kg/4lb chicken

1 orange

1 bunch spring onions

110g/4oz honey

3 tablespoons olive oil

1⁄2 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 teaspoons cumin

Salt and pepper

1kg / 21⁄4 lbs sweet potatoes

1 tablespoon chopped coriander

Line a roasting tin with Bake-O-Glide. Put in the chicken.

Grate the rind from the orange and put in a basin. Finely chop half the bunch of spring onions. Add the honey, oil, cloves, paprika, coriander, cumin and salt and pepper. Use half the mixture to brush the chicken inside and out.

Slice the orange and chop the remaining onion. Use half to put in the chicken cavity and sprinkle the remaining onion over the chicken and the remaining orange slices on the chicken breast.

Hang the tin on the third set of runners from the top of the roasting oven and calculate the roasting time at 20 minutes per 450g/1lb plus 20 minutes. (Gen also put some foil over the bird halfway through to stop the sweet marinade over-browning.)

Meanwhile, peel and cut the sweet potatoes into chunks and toss with the remaining honey mixture. After the first 30 minutes of roasting the chicken add the potatoes round the bird. Remove the orange slices if browning too much.

Roast for the remaining time. The chicken should have a dark golden skin.

Test that the chicken is cooked and then remove the chicken to a warm plate and scatter the coriander over the sweet potatoes.

Serve the sweet potatoes with any pan juices and chunkily carved chicken.

Serve with a plain green salad to offset the sweetness of the chicken and sweet potatoes.

Conventional cooking: Roast at 190°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.

Aga Roast by Louise Walker is published by Absolute Press.

What to drink: You need something with a touch of sweetness to cope with the sweetness and spiciness of the marinade. I'd suggest a Barossa Valley or South African Shiraz or a Grenache or, if you prefer a white, a full-bodied Viognier.