Summer spatchcock chicken with celeriac and carrot slaw

Sunny days need sunny food! In this recipe the chicken is dressed after it’s cooked with the fresh, summery flavours of mint, rosemary, chilli, lemon and honey. I serve this with a fresh green salad on the side and some crusty bread.

Serves: 4

Difficulty: Easy

Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients

For the chicken

1 chicken
Handful of mint
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 red chillis
2 lemons
1 generous tsp honey
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

For the celeriac and carrot slaw

1 celeriac
2 carrots
1 lemon
1 ½ tbsp double cream
4 tbsp of greek yogurt
½ tsp dijon mustard
small handful parsley
10 walnuts
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Hints and Tips

How to spatchcock

Spatchcocking a chicken is actually relatively straightforward. It’s a great way of getting flavour into the bird and cuts down the cooking time.

You will need a sharp kitchen knife. Stand the chicken up on it’s bottom. With the knife start to cut down either side of the back bone, cutting from the neck cavity down toward the parsons nose. Remove the back bone completely and discard.

Next turn the chicken over on the board so it’s flat with the skin side facing up. With the palm of your hands firmly press down on the chicken until you feel the breast bone give and the bird flatten out. You now have a spatchcocked chicken.

Alternatively you could pick a chicken up from your local butcher and get them to do it for you!

NOTE: Remember that the cooking time will vary depending on the size of the bird, you will know it’s cooked when the juices run clear.

Summer spatchcock chicken with celeriac and carrot slaw

Method

For the chicken

Preheat your oven to 190℃ (fan).
First of all you will need to spatchcock the chicken (see hints and tips). Then rub the bird all over with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
Put the bird in the oven, skin side down for 30 mins. After half an hour turn the bird over and cook for another 30 mins.
While the chicken is cooking you can prepare the dressing. On a wooden board, large enough to hold the cooked chicken, finely chop most of the mint (reserving a couple of sprigs), the rosemary, lemon zest and 1 of the red chillis (remove the seeds if you don’t like too much heat), Finally add the extra virgin olive oil, honey and a generous pinch of sea salt. Mix well and spread the dressing over the board.
Once the chicken is ready place on the board, coating it on both sides in the prepared dressing. Leave the bird skin side up, on the board, to rest for 20 minutes. It will absorb the flavours from the board and the juices will settle, ensuring the bird is nice and moist.
When you are ready to serve, chop the remaining mint, slice the remaining chilli and scatter over the chicken.

For the celeriac and carrot slaw

Peel the celeriac and cut into fine straws. If you have one of those nifty food processors with an attachment that can do this for you then use that instead. Otherwise you will just need to have a little patience while you do this. Put the celeriac straws into a bowl as you go being sure to squeeze over some lemon juice each time to stop it from turning brown.
Next peel and grate the carrots into the bowl.
Chop the parsley and 8 of the walnuts and add to the bowl along with a generous pinch of salt.
Finely add the yogurt, double cream and dijon mustard and mix well. Add another generous squeeze of lemon juice and leave to rest for 30 mins at room temperature before serving.
When you are ready to serve, drizzle a little bit of extra virgin olive oil over the top and add the remaining chopped walnuts.

To plate

The chicken looks beautiful served up as it does on the wooden board. I tend to pile up the slaw next to it and let everyone dig in. Cold beers on the side are a must!

Chicken with slaw on a plate