A Copycat's Take on a J. Oliver Recipe

Grilled Spatchcocked Chicken with New Potatoes and Asparagus in Herby Yogurt

This is based on a recipe of the same title
 from Cook with Jaime Oliver,  2006 Oct, UK.

I am one among millions of Jaime Oliver followers, because:

- I like the way he cooks: crude, disorganized in an adorable way;

- He has meltdowns. I do too. When it happens, he moves on, tries it again and makes it better. I don't; I stop and never go back, my dinuguan in 2002 is the perfect example;

- Aside from cooking, he plants, and; 

- I have always imagined ending up with a Filipino version of him (OH YES! I AM A DREAMER!). Instead, I got a mutated Larry Page stalker-in-denial, Michael Greer-wannabe, Andrew Dan-Jumbo in-the-making and a devout Ric Segreto fanatic who once cooked a very tasty chicken adobo on our second date and was never able to recreate it years after. I say, typical one-hit wonder.

Often when I serve meals I got from Mr. Oliver, most of my friends find it too “foreign” for their taste. When you have friends with tongue predisposed to eating saucy Spanish, salty Filipino, overcooked Tsinoy (Filipino-Chinese) food, all others are foreign.

How to do it:

Marinate the chicken with marjoram and oregano, olive oil and juice of one lemon for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven at 400 degrees Farenheit/204 degrees Celsius.

In a griddle pan, spread the chicken until it turns gold on both sides. If your pan is not oven-safe, transfer the chicken to another container before placing it inside the oven. Cooking the chicken takes about 40 minutes to 1 hour, to check if it is done, poke the meat with fork. It should be soft and tender.

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Cook cleaned baby potatoes in a pan of water, add salt. Bring to a boil until cooked. The time it takes to cook depends on the size of your potatoes. Drain water out of the pot, add butter, a little lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. The heat from potatoes will melt the butter, so cover it.

Remove excess fat from the griddle pan, put the asparagus for a few minutes, be careful not to overcook. When done, add a squeeze of lemon, and add olive oil and salt and pepper.

Add parsley, mint and tarragon to your roasted chicken, top with a mix of the remaining lemon juice and yogurt.

Add the potatoes and asparagus before serving.

Cooking for Explocook, I must admit, is a great opportunity to put to use those dusty old cook books, notes taken from TV cook shows, interesting recipes online to whip up just about anything “foreign”.