Jo’s chicken with sweet potato

And so, we kick things off with a nifty dinner party recipe from yours truly. I was inspired by Gavin’s flatmate Ruaidhri’s assertion that sweet potatoes, rosemary, chilli and garlic are a winning combo. I think he’s a veggie though so the chicken is all me.

Who came: Heather, Heather’s fiancé Aaron (marrying at 23, oh so ghetto), Nathan, Bettina, Fi, and Andrew M. A stellar cast, and the red wine overfloweth.

Serves 8
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hr 30 minutes
[My Mum told me that the secret to perfectly cooked chicken was, “20 minutes per pound, and 20 minutes more.” I don’t have the heart to tell he we’re all about the metric now. All I can say is that my two chickens were perfect after an hour and a half. Always check though, I’ve heard salmonella’s pretty nasty.]

Mosey down to Sainsbo’s and fill the trolley with:
2 chickens (1kg each)
12 small/medium sweet potatoes
8 rashers of smoked back bacon
garlic
one red chilli
dried rosemary
olive oil
black pepper

I served it with broccoli, but if I had my way everything would be. Even trifle.

1. Peel the sweet potatoes and roughly cut them into wedges
2. Put the potatoes on the bottom of a deep baking tray and spread them about evenly. Mix a large teaspoon each of garlic, chilli and rosemary with a big glug of olive oil and drizzle over the potatoes.
3. Sit your chickens on top of the potatoes and make sure they don’t have any weirdy giblet type stuff in them. Cover the chickens in bacon, four rashers on each. Grind black pepper on top.
4. Stick the baking tray into the oven at 200oC and wait for the bacon to crisp up a bit (about 20 minutes). Then cover the tray in foil and cook for the rest of the time. For the last ten minutes you can take the bacon off the top and put the chickens back in uncovered to let the skin brown.
5. When it’s done carve the chicken, and serve with a big spoonful of the sweet potatoes and some juice from the pan. Give everyone a rasher of bacon too. Yum!

The result: only one broccoli floret left over. Outstanding!