Give your traditional Sunday roast a decidedly Mediterranean (though technically Atlantic) flavour with this roast chicken with apricots inspired by the pollo con albaricoques dish I discovered in Galicia in northwest Spain, served here with similarly Iberian-facing side dishes.
I cooked this dish in Yorkshire for 3 people, so opted for a medium-sized chicken, but obviously, go larger and it easily serves more.
Similarly, slightly increase (or decrease) your quantity of veggies and other ingredients to scale to how many will be needing a place at the table. Personally, I prefer to overdo it on the rice dish, because it makes the perfect leftover work lunch on its own.
Ordinarily, I would cook the rice dish with a rice variety traditionally used for paella, but choices of rice (of the kind that don't come in microwave bags) were rather limited in Todmorden. The mix of black and wild brown rice proved a pleasant surprise.
This meal is very much about pimentón. You should pick up the different ways it runs through the dish, the different ways its flavours are drawn out through different cooking methods. If you don't like it, you're probably not going to enjoy this meal.
Similarly, a couple of other options: I prefer using hotter red chillies in my sauce, but it is also delicious with the milder varieties if your palette doesn't like heat; and, although the first time I encountered this dish it was made with butter beans, some people think it's more "authentic" to use white fava beans (dried broad beans). Bicker among yourselves...
Shopping list
The bird and stuffing
1 medium chicken
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly sliced
3 fresh apricots, halved and stoned
3 or 4 sticks of celery, chopped
A generous clutch of spring onions, chopped
1 fresh lime, cut into quarters
About 6 or 7cm chorizo, cut into rough chunks
At least 3 tspns pimentón (smoked paprika)
Salt and pepper to flavour
About 6 tbspns of olive oil
The rice with butter beans
1 cup of rice of choice
1 400g tin of butter beans (the equivalent dried; cooked and drained)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or crushed
2 or 3 sticks of celery, finely chopped
2 or 3 echalion shallots, finely chopped
the leftover green parts of the spring onions (see above)
1 vegetable stock cube/jelly, diluted in a cup of boiling water
1 tspn oregano
1 tspn dried parsley
3 tbspns extra virgin olive oil
A glass of white wine
Salt and pepper to taste
The green beans and Padrón peppers
Approx. 220g fresh green beans, topped and tailed
Approx 150g fresh Padrón peppers, topped
2 handfuls of almonds, roughly crushed
A little virgin oil
The port cream sauce
1 tspn smoked garlic paste
2 cloves of garlic, grated or crushed
2 red chillies, finely sliced
1 tspn pimentón (smoked paprika)
Approx. 150ml single cream
1 small glass port, red or white
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking Method
the chicken
Prepare all of the stuffing ingredients (celery, lime, chorizo, apricots, garlic, spring onions) on a chopping board
On another board or plate, remove any giblets from the bird's cavity then season with clean fingers, first massaging a little pimentón, salt and pepper into the skin on all sides. Baste very lightly with a little olive oil using a pastry brush. Then repeat
While the seasoning begins to soak in, stuff the cavity with the stuffing ingredients. Start with the sliced garlic, but after that, push the ingredients into the cavity in a fairly random way until the bird is literally stuffed. Keep aside some of the chopped green stalks of the spring onion that you will use later in the rice dish. If not all the stuffing ingredients fit into the cavity, place the remaining apricot or lime on the outside of the bird when you begin roasting
Pour enough boiling water into a deep roasting dish/tray so that there is at least 4 or 5ml of liquid covering the entire base of the dish/tray. This will ensure that your chicken remains wonderfully moist. Throw in a few of the slices of garlic. Then, place a grill into/over the dish so that it stands above the water. Place the bird, breast side down on the grille and loosely cover with tin foil
Place the tray with the bird into a pre-heated oven (200°C/180° Fan/Gas 6). Roast for about 40 mins, then gently turn the bird and remove the tin foil
Cooking time will vary depending on the size of the bird but is likely to be in the region of 1.5 hours. Once the bird has been placed in the oven, add a little salt, pepper and pimentón to a shallow dish and mix in a little olive oil and a dash of port. Using a pastry brush, regularly baste the bird and also ensure that there is constantly at least a film of water in the base of the roasting dish/try, topping up with a kettle as needed. If you prefer the skin more crisp, baste more regularly while cooking at the higher heat
When the bird is ready (it needs to reach at least 165°, which you can check using a meat thermometer) allow to rest for at least 10 min before carving. If it is ready a while before you side dishes, radically reduce the heat but continue to baste regularly to ensure that it doesn't dry out
Before carving, loosen the stuffing and pull from the cavity with a fork so that diners can help themselves to it
The rice with butter beans
Heat the olive oil in a pot with a lid. When the oil is hot, but not smoking, add the garlic, stirring. When it softens but is not yet brown, add the shallots and sweat, followed by the celery a few minutes later
When the celery changes colour slightly, but is still fairly firm, thrown in the rice, stirring constantly and ensuring that it is sealed in the oil (add a little more if needed)
Once the rice is sealed, season with pimentón, salt and pepper. Pour in about half of the wine and allow it to cook off. Then pour in enough liquid stock to cover the ingredients
Bring to the boil and boil vigorously for about 5 mins. Cover and reduce the heat and allow to simmer until the rice is almost fully cooked, stirring occasionally and adding additional stock liquid as needed to ensure the ingredients remain moist. It is much better to cook this dish on a lower heat for longer, but not necessary. So cooking times can vary from about 12 to 20 mins
When the rice is almost fully cooked, add the drained pre-cooked butter beans and spring onion shoots. Gently, but thoroughly mix these into the rices mixture, adding the rest of the wine as you do so
Increase the heat so that the wine cooks off relatively quickly, stirring to prevent sticking. When the rice is fully cooked and the butter beans fully heated, cover and remove from the heat. Allow to rest before plating or decanting to a serving dish
The green beans and Padrón peppers
Crush the almonds using a pestle and mortar until similar to the consistency of uncooked polenta
Lay the "topped" Padrón peppers out on a grilling pan (using tin foil if desired). Brush with a little olive oil and grill, turning at least once, until the skin blisters and, ideally, a few black, burned spots appear here and there. NB: keep an eye on them because they cook surprisingly quickly
Steam the green beans in a microwave steamer or using a more traditional stove-top method. Adjust your timing for grilling the peppers accordingly; you want them to be ready pretty much at the same time
Add the drained steamed beans and grilled peppers to a serving dish, gently mixing together and dressing with a smidgen of olive oil. Season and finally sprinkle the almond "gravel" over the top of the dish and take to table
The port cream sauce
Heat about two tbspns of extra virgin olive oil until very hot. Remove whatever excess stuffing ingredients you roasted on the outside of the bird (lime, apricot, garlic etc.) and add to this oil at the same time as adding raw crushed/grated garlic, the red chillies and pimentón, stirring constantly to prevent sticking. If you have any of the basting mixture left over, add this too, continuing to stir
Add half of the port and allow this to cook off stirring contantly
Bit-by-bit, add the cream and remaining port, stirring into to a tasty sauce as it thickens. Do not use double cream. If you really want a cream frenzy, simply use more single cream.
When it is at the optimum consistency, turn off the heat, remove the "lumpier" elements (such as roasted lime quarters) and decant to a sauce dish and take to table. NB: You want to cook the sauce last before serving, ideally while some skilled fellow diner does the carving for you because this sauce tends to "set" fairly quickly as it cools. That doesn't make it any less tasty, simply harder to pour
Alternatives
While it might seem obvious that this dish, built around roast chicken, isn't exactly suited for pescatarians, vegans or vegetarians, it's not as cut and dried as it appears at first glance. For a start, both side dishes are vegan and the rice dish, pretty much a paella or risotto-like dish in its own right, is something I enjoy cooking as a plant-based meal in its own right.
But if you are any of the above or a host catering to mixed dinning company, here are a few options:
Veggies and vegans: simply serve with your favourite nut roast or, better still, make one that includes all of the spices and stuffing ingredients above except for the chorizo. Or, serve with grilled aubergine "steaks" basted with the same vegetable-based mixture used to bast the chicken about
Pescatarians: In all honesty, apricot doesn't really work with fish. So, either go for the veggie/vegan option or wrap salmon or a white fish such as cod in tin foil with all of the spices and stuffing ingredients above except for the chorizo and apricots
Also an alternative for the port sauce that works for vegans as well as those who are lactose-intolerant or can't eat dairy is a delicious "drizzle" version. Cook exactly in the manner detailed above, but at the stage one would add the cream, instead double your ration of port, add 2 tbspns honey, 3 sprigs of rosemary and a shot of Spanish gin (such as Gin Mare) to balance the sweetness with a nice tone of bitterness. Cook until this reduces to a coulis-like consistency (actually it's unlikely to ever be as "solid" as a coulis, hence my calling it a "drizzle"). Decant through a sieve into a serving dish. NB: Don't worry too much about the amount of this sauce. It will always be less than the cream option quantity, but it is supercharged and should be treated much like traditional English mint sauce.
Pairings
Yes, of course this is a dish we need to get Karel onto, merely one on a long waiting list. Somehow, for whatever reason, I always seem to end up cooking this dish when I'm away from London on some semi-spontaneous whim without access to my go-to places.
This time I decided to cook it on a trip to Todmorden in Yorkshire. Needless to say, the wine choices, like rice choices, were limited locally for last-minute shopping. But, I think it worked very well with a working white Rioja from the local Lidl, Cepa Lebrel Blanco (2019), a wine I recognised as having made a jolly good effort in similar previous circumstances.
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