...Chicken dinner!
Here's what I made tonight, only without pictures, because the kitchen was a mess.
Pot roasted chicken with warm lentil salad
you will need-
1 whole chicken
2 large onions
2 large carrots
1 large leek
1 tin tomatoes
For the salad-
2 shallots
about a dozen or so cherry tomatoes
1 red pepper
150g puy or green lentils
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp worcestshire sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp grain mustard
So, first things first, get the oven on at about 190c before you get your chicken on the go- Roughly chop your veg and toss them into a large casserole dish with some olive oil over a medium high heat. Cook those until the onion has softened a bit, and the leek has wilted. At this point toss in the tin of tomatoes, and a half-tin's worth of water. Also, add any herbs you might have lying about. I added thyme and oregano, but rosemary would be good as well, or if you fancied something a bit different, maybe some chilli and cumin. Really whatever you fancy. When that has come up to a simmer, pop the chicken in. Whole. Just smoosh it down into things so it's nestled nicely into the veggies. Then pop a lid on and throw it in the oven. Because you're cookign it with liquids in there and at a moderately low temperature, you don't really have to worry about it overcooking as it'll still have lots of tasty juices in there to keep it moist, so about 2 hours or so should be good.
Then make the salad, which is simple as anything- just cook the lentils so they're nicely al dente, drain them and set to one side. Into a large bowl finely shred the shallots and pepper, and chut the tomatoes into 1/2 or 1/4 and throw them in as well. Then to make the dressing, simply mix together the vinegar, mustard, worcestershire and soy. Add salt, pepper and possibly a spot of sugar to taste. When you're ready to serve heat the dressing up and mix it into the lentils before adding the other ingreients and you have a nice tasty warm salad.
Serve up with some rice and there you have a tasty, simple dinner that (hopefully) will keep everyone fed and happy.
