ingredients

• a medium sized, free range, corn fed chicken (£6) - with the recent drive to go free range, supermarkets have had to increase production of free range birds. This has (finally) led to a decrease in the cost, availability and variety of good free range chickens. For this recipe Corn Fed is essential, as the sesame oil works well with the yellowed rich meat to bring out some great nutty flavours.
• 3 whole lemons
• a few cloves of garlic
• a small bunch of fresh thyme
• a small sprig of fresh rosemary
• 1 fresh or 3 dried bay leaves
• a few lavendar flowers (or leaves WITH STALKS)
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• a teaspoonful of toasted sesame oil
• a dash of honey
• 4 rashers of bacon
• 1.5 tablespoons of plain flour
• ground black pepper
• a teaspoon of sunflower oil.

Then for the soup (the following night):

• 4 freeze dried kaffir lime leaves
• 1 fresh or 3 dried bay leaves
• a whole white onion
• chicken carcass
• 3 large flat mushrooms
• 2 cloves of garlic
• a small tin of unsweetened/unsalted sweetcorn.
• a large white floury potato
• a dash of worcester sauce
• a lump of ginger
  

method

• clean the chicken and remove string.
• halve a lemon and squeeze the juice of both halves over the full chicken. Retain the lemon skins.
• melt a tablespoon of butter with a teaspoonful of sesame oil, let cool slightly then spoon over the chicken and massage in with your hands.
• Put the chicken in the fridge and leave for an hour.
• Next, put the oven on to heat with the lidded roasting dish in.
• Remove chicken from the fridge and put on a plate. drape 2 of the 4 bacon rashers over the breast.
• take the lemon skins plus another halved lemon, put in a bowl with the lavendar, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves and garlic, and microwave for a couple of minutes until sizzling hot. TAKING CARE, use some tongs or a pair of spoons and stuff the chicken with all this. AS SOON as this is done, take out the (now roasting hot) oven dish, put the bird in and return to the oven, lidded at 175C.
• Next, peel your potatoes and put a seperate roasting tray into the oven to heat. Raise temp to 200 and put the new tray above the chicken dish. In a pan, heat to sizzling a tablespoon of butter and a teaspoon of sunflower oil. Put the potatoes onto their hot roasting tray, pour over the oil/butter mix, stir thoroughly and put in the oven, top shelf. This should be after about 20 mins of the chicken roasting alone.
• After 15 mins, remove the chicken dish, brush the bacon off the top (if it hasn't fallen!), squeeze half a lemon over the bird then drape with the remaining 2 bacon rashers over the breast meat. Return to the over, unlidded. After ten minutes turn the heat to 170C and leave for between 15 to 20 minutes.
• Next take the chicken out of the oven and spoon the juices over the potatoes, mix the pots and return both to the oven at a reduced 150C for between 15 and 35 minutes, depending on size of bird.
• To make the gravy, remove the bird from oven (check it is cooked through here) and put on a warm plate to stand. Put the flour in the juices left in the roasting tin on a low hob (with the first bits of bacon still in the pan) and beat in using a fork/whisk until very blended. Heat to a boil (it should suddenly thicken), add some water, a small bit at a time, while on low heat, to unthicken it, return to simmer for 5 minutes while you carve the bird.
• Serve the carved meat and (very crispy, naughty as hell) roasties with loads of gravy over it all.

mmmmmMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!! The sesame oil and butter make the cornyness come through and really help emphasise the chickenyness.

To make the soup:

• put the bird carcass with stuffing in a medium pan on the hob, turn on to start sizzling, add bay leaf, halved white onion, kaffir lime leaves and ginger, then pour over 2 pints of water and put the lid on. Let simmer for ten minutes then remove the lemons from inside the carcass. Return to the heat to summer for about an hour undisturbed.
• add a dash of worcester sauce and a peeled halved potato. Let simmer for 30 mins.
• During this time peel and thinly slice the garlic and add to a pan with a tablespoon of butter and warm GENTLY (i.e. turn heat on while stood there, then turn it off and let stand - repeat x 3)
• Now you need to manually sift throught the soup on the hob and remove as many of the bones as possible. Also remove the bay leaves, ginger and kaffir lime leaves.
• Slice the mushrooms and fry hot in the garlic butter for just a few minutes, until the butter is mostly absorbed. Put this into the soup with the can of drained sweetcorn.
• Heat until boiled for a minute, ensure the potato is broken up if this hasn't happened naturally, let stand with a lid on for 20 minutes, then serve.

That's it! 2 meals for around £8, give or take a few herbs etc which are in the cupboard. And believe, both are well worth the effort!