Nigella's Brandy-Bacony Chicken!

Brandied-Bacony Chicken

Here is what you'll need....

1 three pound chicken (I used a four and half pounder)

2 strips bacon (Since it's a bigger bird I used 3 strips)

1/4 cup brandy

A roasting pan

Step 1 - Heat oven to 425 F.

Step 2 - cook bacon until crisp, about 4 minutes.

Step 3 - Take pan off the heat, the cooked bacon out of the pan and place immediately into the cavity of the chicken.

Step 4 - Pour the brandy into the hot frying pan over the bacon grease and let it sizzle for 2 minutes.

Step 5 - Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the juices run clear between leg and body of chicken. Let it sit for a few minutes before carving.

Because I used a larger bird I had to cook longer. I also turned the heat to convection bake at 400 after a half hour. If you don't have a convection oven I would still turn the heat down a bit. (Unless you are using the three pound bird. )

But if you need to feed more than two people or if you want left-overs, definitely get the larger bird or even a roasting hen. The brandy bacon grease on the roasted chicken gives it a nice bronzed look when it's done.

The sad news - when it was done I was so taken with the end result, with the golden bronzed bacon studded roasted chicken...that I did not take a photo. That makes me so sad, because I would have loved to share the final result. But no. We just carved and ate and drank. (sigh) Next time.

Important tip - the first time I made this recipe I forgot to take the pan off the heat before adding the brandy. Well......let me tell you, now that my eyebrows have grown back I definitely know to get that pan off the heat. The explosion and crackling and smoke that came off that hot pan literally made me jump backwards from the stove. Expletives flew freely as I retreated. Fortunately I had another bottle of brandy.

Another important tip - We don't as a rule have full sized bottles of brandy in the house so when I want to cook this Nigella recipe, just buy the little airline size bottle from the liquor store. It looks like too little, but when I measured it darn if it wasn't a quarter cup. Just what I needed. The Easy Jesus brand is cheap but does the job.

Bonus - The leftover chicken and bacon (from the cavity) made a nice soup for lunch the next day. I added fresh white button mushrooms, carrots and some garlic to simmer in extra virgin olive oil. Tip in the chicken, bacon and a handful of thin noodles with homemade broth - yum yum.



Scratch off another from the book, Nigella Express, Workday Winners Section, page 36.