Groggy roast chicken

Sometimes, a simple twist on an old favourite can make all the difference. I have noticed since I started this blog that I make an awful lot of chicken dishes, and of those, that most of them are baked. I have always loved my Mum's home-made roast chicken, so I have had fun over the last year discovering new ways with roast chicken.

Recently, I acquired Nigella Express. I am a huge fan of Nigella's television shows, because she makes cooking look fun and sexy, and doesn't give a hoot about whether or not what she makes is low fat, low GI or otherwise sickeningly healthy. Nigella makes cooking and eating what you cook a pleasure - which is how it should be.

One of Nigella's dishes in Nigella Express is a brandied, bacony chicken. In a nutshell, it's just a roast chicken with fried bacon stuck in the cavity to flavour the chicken and with heated brandy poured over the top before roasting. I didn't have any bacon, but I liked the brandy idea because Nigella promised that it would give the chicken a crispy skin - and so it did.

Pictured above is my version of brandied chicken with roast vegetables. I simply heated a tot of brandy in a frypan to burn off the alcohol (not too much or it will evaporate completely!) and poured it over the chicken in the roasting dish. I tossed the veges in salt and pepper (and sumac for the pumpkin), sprayed them with oil to ensure they baked up with crispy skins, and baked the lot at 220 degrees Celsius for about an hour. This was really simple and hands off, and tasted delicious. It was also quick enough for me to make for dinner after work, when I am in serious couch potato mode.