Chicken roasted over sourdough with morels, peas and wild garlic mayonnaise
A spring Sunday roast packed with wild garlic and morel mushrooms. The sourdough soaks up all the delicious roast chicken juices
Ingredients
- ½ garlic bulb, unpeeled, from a whole bulb cut horizontally
- ½ lemon
- 1 free-range chicken (about 1.25kg/2lb 12oz)
- ½ large, round, slightly stale sourdough loaf, from a whole loaf cut horizontally
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the wild garlic mayonnaise
- handful wild garlic leaves
- 1 large free-range egg yolk
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 100ml/3½fl oz extra virgin olive oil
- white wine vinegar, to taste
For the morels and peas
- 75g/2½oz unsalted butter
- 100g/3½oz morel mushrooms, cleaned and halved
- 100g/3½oz frozen peas, defrosted
- handful wild garlic leaves, shredded
For the fried potatoes
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 potatoes, cut into 1cm/½in pieces
- handful fresh wild garlic, shredded
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 8. For the chicken, put the garlic and lemon inside the chicken cavity and season with salt and pepper.
Put the sourdough into a large roasting tray and drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and place the chicken on top. Season the chicken and drizzle over the other tablespoon of olive oil.
Roast the chicken for an hour and a half, or until the skin is golden-brown and crisp and the chicken is cooked through.To test the chicken is cooked, insert a small sharp knife into the thickest part of the meat, between the leg and breast; the juices that run should be clear, with no sign of pink. If there is any pink, roast the chicken for another 10–20 minutes, or until cooked through. When the chicken is cooked, leave to rest for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, for the wild garlic mayonnaise, blanch the wild garlic in boiling water for 1 minute, then drain and blend with 100ml/3½fl oz water. Whisk together the egg yolk and mustard in a bowl, then slowly whisk in the oil until you have a thick mayonnaise. Stir through the wild garlic purée, season with the vinegar, salt and pepper and set aside at room temperature.
For the morels and peas, heat the butter in a medium sauté pan. When foaming, add the morels, season with salt and pepper and fry until golden-brown. Add the peas and wild garlic with a splash of water, then turn off the heat and set aside.
For the fried potatoes, heat the butter and oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Fry the potatoes for 8–10 minutes, until cooked through. Place the wild garlic on top and cook until wilted.
To serve, carve the chicken into legs and breasts, remove the leg meat from the bone and cut the breasts into pieces. Squeeze the cooked lemon from inside the chicken cavity over the meat.
Cut the sourdough into four pieces and divide between plates, place some chicken on top, spoon over the morels and peas and drizzle the garlic mayonnaise on top, serve with the fried potatoes on the side.
