Glazed Roast Chicken

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New research reveals that the UK is a nation of food lovers; no surprise given the UK hosts some of the world’s best chefs and restaurants. But when it comes down to it we are worried about mimicking our food idols and only ever cook family staples, according to the UK’s biggest supermarket , Tesco, who surveyed 2000 UK parents.

As a born and bred Londoner I was interested in the London results which showed that 74% of people from our capital city admit to being passionate about food and over half (56%) of London mums and dads say they are passionate about cooking. 60% spend more than 30 minutes cooking their evening meal on a weekday and only 7% use the microwave for the main family meal.

London is such a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities and it doesn’t surprise me at all that there is a high number of people who are passionate about food – I’m one of them! From traditional British foods to something from a far flung nation, you can’t walk through London without stumbling upon somewhere to eat and dine out every few steps!

When it comes to being adventurous, 44% of the parents surveyed admitted to sticking to to cooking what they know because they are simple and easy to make.

Again, this doesn’t surprise me, how often do the same meals get cooked week in week out in your house? We have our weekly staples – spag bol, meat and three veg, pizza…but I do like to try out new recipes on the family – and if you are a regular reader of The Purple Pumpkin Blog, you’ll know this!

As I said, Tesco surveyed 2000 UK parents and London falls in the top five of the UK’s foodie cities…and the top family meal? The humble roast dinner!

Demonstrating how food obsessed Londoners are, the study also revealed that 30% own more than ten cook books and over half (57%) of London’s adults watch two or more food programmes a week. It’s one of the nation’s favourite hobbies! But no matter how inspiring, nearly a third (30%) admit to never cooking anything from what they have read or seen due to the fear of lack of time (29%) and not having all the ingredients (15%).

Tesco launched #LoveEveryMouthful this summer to encourage the nation to celebrate food in all its glory, be creative with everyday food and relish every drizzle, drop and scoop. Tesco wants to highlight fresh, seasonal and British ingredients and to support the UK’s love of food.

I’m all for celebrating food and being creative, so when Tesco asked me to prepare and cook their Glazed Roast Chicken recipe, I jumped at the chance. I love a roast dinner, I love preparing one for the family and I love eating it too – but I’m just as guilty for sticking to the tried and tested roast dinner – plain roast meat with a variety of vegetables and roast potatoes, so when I read the recipe for glazed roast chicken, I was excited to give a new twist to the humble roast dinner!

I received the ingredients (some you are more than likely already have in your store cupboard!) which were – a British free range corn fed chicken, tenderstem broccoli, Charlotte potatoes, olive oil, dark soy sauce, shaoxing rice wine, organic clear honey, garlic, ginger and lemon

This dish would work so well for an Easter lunch and I’ve got a collection of Easter Recipes that you might like to try out – right-click and open them in a new tab to read next.

I read through the recipe which is very easy and straightforward and the most work required was the putting together of the glaze to cover the chicken!

In a saucepan, stir together 5 tablespoons dark soy sauce, 5 tablespoons rice wine (or if you can’t find that, dry sherry is a good substitute), 6½ tablespoons clear honey, 6 crushed garlic cloves and about 1″ piece of ginger, grated. Bring the mixture to the boil and reduce down until thick and sticky. Always keep an eye on the mixture as you don’t want it to boil over.

Place your chicken in a roasting tray and brush with half of the sticky glaze. Pop into a 200C/Gas 6 oven for 50 minutes. I covered my roast chicken during this initial cooking stage as I didn’t want the glaze to burn.

Whilst your chicken is roasting, prepare the potatoes. Slice up a lemon, halve the potatoes lengthways and then place both these ingredients into an ovenproof dish and pour over a tablespoon of olive oil. Give everything a good mix and season with a little sea salt.

After 50 minutes, take the chicken out of the oven for its second basting. This is what my chicken looked like after the first session of cooking.

I brushed the remaining glaze all over the chicken and returned it to the oven, uncovered this time, for another 30 minutes. It was also time to cook the potatoes for half an hour, so in they went as well.

When the allotted cooking time was up, I checked to see if the chicken was cooked by using a meat thermometer and it wasn’t quite at the temperature it should be, so it went back into the other for another 10 minutes. If you don’t have a meat thermometer, pierce a thick section of the chicken and if the juices run clear, it is cooked.

Don’t panic – my chicken isn’t burnt! The dark sticky glaze just makes it look that way! I am glad I covered my chicken with foil though as I imagine all that sugary honey would burn with the long cooking time – and no one wants burnt chicken! I let the chicken stand for about 10 minutes before carving. I have to say, the chicken smelled so good – mouthwateringly delicious!

Whilst the chicken was having its resting time, I steamed the tenderstem broccoli for about 5 minutes and then dished everything up…

…it was yummed up by everyone, including my nearly 1 year old niece who was over for lunch! To have a different tasting chicken was a welcome change to a plain roast, and the lemony Charlotte potatoes were lovely and flavourful. I always think of a roast dinner as a autumn/winter dish – but with the potatoes cooked this way and the fresh tenderstem broccoli this is an ideal spring/summer roast dinner to be enjoyed al fresco!

Why not jazz up your regular roast chicken and give this dish a try? I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

@cherry_o That’s lovely and it sounds so scrummy (I’m starving lol). Thanks for letting us know about your feedback :) #Enjoy
— Tesco (@Tesco) October 7, 2013

Here are more Chicken Recipes for you to enjoy. Right-click and open a new tab to read next.

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