Yeah, another weekend has gone by! Perhaps too quickly! I did nothing (cooking and eating not count) except battling on Mario Kart Wii in becoming the Kart Champion! I started off as a very bad Kart driver but managed to raise my trophy in the end (well, at the moment for the 50cc only *LOL*).

 

It’s addictive….too addictive that you always want to press theNEXT GAME button to start a new game. What is so cool about this game on Wii console is that you could play with the people around the world included your friends!

  

Even though I spent most of my time in front of the TV and holding tight on the Wii Wheel remote, I did spend some time in the kitchen to prepare a wholesome Sunday Lunch.

  

Strange but it’s true that I do crave for roast chicken from time to time. I am sure you all know that it is important to have a good quality of chicken in order to make a great roast. Free range, preferably. Free range chickens tend to be slightly expensive, thus, not popular. As consumers would rather opt for 2 for £5 chickens. From this kind of promotional price, you would probably have guessed that they are conventional intensively raised chickens or also called industrial chickens.

  

I don’t think that supermarkets (like Tesco and Sainsbury’s) stock enough free range/ pasture-based chickens. Once, I wanted to get a whole free range chicken but I couldn’t find even one. Anyway, I was surprised to see lots of free range chickens at Tesco last weekend. However, when I looked at the labels, they are French free range chickens (Label Rouge to be precise)! Wow, could it probably be that free range chickens are so popular nowadays that they have to be imported? I doubt.

 

It doesn’t bother me much really. Instead, I love this. I like them stocking more quality products from France. I am praying hard that one day they will have 2 big full selves of various flavours of yoghurt.

 

Right, to get to the point – not only I had a fantastic Wii weekend but had a wonderful Sunday lunch at home. I bought the Label Rouge free range chicken and made the simplest and yummiest roast ever! Ah, never forget to have some vegetables and new potatoes with it!

 

Here’s the recipe of My Cooking Hut’s Succulent Maple Roast Chicken. Goes well chips.

  

Ingredients:

1 medium Free Range Chicken

Some sprigs of Lemon Thyme

1 bulb of garlic (halves)

1 onion (halves)

Salt & pepper to taste

Some olive oil

Some water

Maple syrup to glaze (can use clear honey too)

Some new potatoes

Some carrots

Some broccolis

 

Method:

1. Clean the new potatoes, leave the skins on and boil them for about 15 – 20 minutes.

2. Drain them and place in a baking tray and drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle some lemon thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Then, give them a good toss before putting them into a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Celcius.

3. Rinse the chicken and dry with kitchen towels.

4. Generously drizzle some olive oil and rub all over the chicken.

5. Rub salt and pepper all over.

6. Stuff the onion, the garlic and some sprigs of lemon thyme in the chicken.

7. Sprinkle some lemon thyme on the chicken.

8. Put into a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Celsius. Roast the chicken according to the duration specified. Usually a medium-size chicken would take slightly more than an hour.

9. Bath the chicken from time to time with some water to maintain the moisture.

10. Half way through the roasting, take the chicken out and brush maple syrup/clear honey. This will give the chicken a nice glaze and taste.

11. While the chicken is roasting away and nearly cooked, prepare the vegetables. I usually steam them.

12. Check the new potatoes and they should be roasted till the skin is brown and crispy.

13. Serve the vegetables and new potatoes with roast free range chicken.

 

Yum! Please feel free to share your version of roast chicken with me

 

My verdict on free range chicken… for this occasion, it’s based on Label Rouge (Red Label) free range chicken from France.

• Less fat.
• Distinctive taste.
• More juicy.
• Thin and translucent skin.
• Firm flesh yet not tough.

Overall rating for the quality: 9/10