Quack fat!

This week I roasted a whole chicken. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, Spanish paprika, fresh thyme and I stuffed the cavity with more thyme and half a lemon. I already went over how to roast a whole chicken a few months ago, but if you missed it, click here. On the side I fried up some parboiled red skin potatoes, white onion, crushed garlic, thyme and paprika to echo the flavours of the chicken. Then a very simple green salad with a dressing I made out of olive oil, white wine vinegar and tarragon mustard. 

If I've already done this before then why am I bothering to write about it again? Because of the potato side dish in the forefront. Remember a couple of posts back where I showed you how to make a great seared duck breast? Remember all the fat that we rendered out and I told you to reserve it? That's what I fried the potato side dish in. Just a little goes a very long way and it has the most magnificent flavour. It's savoury, rich and has a warm earthiness to it that's hard to describe. I livened the rest of the dish up with the juice from the half lemon that I removed from the chicken after it had rested from its roast in the oven. The lemon spent over an hour steaming inside the chicken, collecting all those flavourful, chickeny juices and the thyme. I squeezed the warm lemon juice over the potatoes and they were magnificent. 

That's about it. It's the first day of a brand new month and I'm hoping to have more posts this month than in March. Work is expected to die down a little this month so I'll have more time to focus on the blog. I have a few things planned in the upcoming weeks ahead so be sure to stay tuned.

In the meantime, be happy and stay fed,

B