British recipes Roast chicken with autumn fruits and quinoa recipe

Date Published:

17/12/2008

You could use other fruits (such as figs or plums) instead of those suggested and bulgur wheat or brown rice would be just as good as quinoa (pronounced 'keen-wah').

Serves 6
Takes 40 minutes to make and 1 3/4 hours in the oven

1. Cover the cranberries or cherries in boiling water for 10 minutes, then drain. Preheat the oven to 190°C/ fan170°C/gas 5. Mash the thyme leaves into 30g of the butter and season. Carefully lift the skin off the chicken breast and stuff with some of the thyme butter. Ease the skin from the legs in the same way. Push in the remaining thyme butter. Put the chicken in a roasting tin, season the outside and roast for 1 hour.

2. Toss all the fruit and the onions together in a bowl with the extra thyme sprigs, some salt, pepper, the sugar and the olive oil. Remove the chicken from the oven and put the fruit and onions all round the chicken (try not to have the berries on top as they can burn – keep them underneath the fruit). Stir the fruit around to coat in the cooking juices. Dot with the remaining butter and return to the oven for a further 45 minutes, turning the fruit once during this cooking time.

3. Start making the quinoa 20 minutes before the chicken is ready. Put it in a sieve and wash it well – this just removes any residue. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the garlic and gently sauté until soft. Add the quinoa and stir until well coated in the oil. Add the stock, season and cook for 20 minutes, until the grains are soft. Cover, for 5 minutes, then fluff up with a fork. Add some olive oil or butter and the parsley.

4. Serve the chicken on a warm platter surrounded by the fruit with the quinoa in a bowl on the side.

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