Express Cooking

Nigella's sixth book is Nigella Express and its full of recipes for busy people who still want to cook good food. One received the accompanying DVD series for Christmas and has been quite enjoying working ones way through hours on end of Nigella while flicking through the book at the same time.

In one of the few breaks from Nigella yesterday one hit the kitchen and turned to Nigella Express for some guidance on roasting a chicken (first roast chicken one has made). Now this may not seem like an express recipe or something that a you could whip up as it were, but in fact it is supremely easy.

Step one was to fry up some bacon (YUM!) and then once that was done, it goes in the chook cavity, then you throw some brandy on the bacon fat and pour it over the bird. I had also put some butter under the chicken's skin to start too. If you look closely you can see the crispy bacon:



In the spirit of 'Express' cooking, one then hit up the beach with the SO while the bird baked. As we walked up the stairs to aflatofonesown one could smell a deliciously homely yummy smell that was slightly sweet (bandy), slightly savoury (the bird plus bacon) and totally delicious YUM.

One was slightly anxious that the bird would be either burnt or not cooked, but was completely relieved when one opened the oven to find this:



A quick check that the bird was cooked through by piercing between the thigh and the body and seeing beautiful clear bird juice run out and one was ecstatic!