Spring Chicken Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Harissa

I'm taking crunchy new season salad leaves at their very best in spring and pimping them up with my twist on a classic French dressing served with a stunning roast chicken and nuggets of tangy cheese in my roast chicken springtime salad. So, let's start with the marinade for the chicken. I'm going to use some beautiful herbs here. I've got some oregano. It's a brilliant herb. Beautiful savory herb with citrusy notes. Very good with lamb. Very good with chicken. Actually, it's very good with fish. It's good with everything.

What I'm going to do is just get all these leaves off the stalk. Like a handful. Generous handful we got there. And we'll get those in the pestle and mortar. If you haven't got one, you can use a liquidizer or you can chop it if you want. A nice generous pinch of salt and pepper. And give it a ruddy good bashing. Excuse the noise. Once you've got it to a kind of nice little pulp like this, right, we can go in then with a couple of cloves of garlic. Once the garlic's smashed up, then loosen that with olive oil. That's about three tablespoons. And we go from bashing then to muddling. And that is how you extract incredible flavor. Now, we want a little bit of acidity to balance that. So, it could be

lemon juice, it could be vinegar, it doesn't really matter. So, a little bit of lemon juice goes in. And that over the chicken is going to be amazing. Look at the color when I roast it. By the way, I'm going to put a very simple trivet of a couple of onions just cut in half like that. And I leave the skins on because they kind of protect the onions and allow them to really kind of caramelize and go jammy and sticky and gorgeous. And then a little bit of garlic. I'll just put half a garlic in there. Again, leave it in the skins and later on I can squeeze the garlic out and it's sweet and caramelized and gorgeous. Now, for the chicken, the easiest preparation ever is to spatchcock the chicken. You pick it up

like that. You get a knife, going to do one little cut down the back, and that's going to open it out like a book and just flatten it out. By making it flat, you've increased the surface area. It's going to cook quicker. But also, we've got this kind of thing between the breast meat that cooks quicker than the leg meat. So, what I want to do is encourage more flavor in this breast meat. You get the skin at the back and you stick your finger under the breast like this. Right to the end. Try not to tear it anywhere. Right. And you do it on the other side as well. So, now we've got a pocket between the breast and the skin. And then I can put the marinade under there. I can put a knob of butter Hi.

Hi, babe. How you all right? Yeah. Good. In my little shack. I know. I love it. Lunch is being prepared. Um, can you grab that butter and bring it over here? Can you cut me two slithers of butter about a centimeter thick, please? Yeah. If you can pass me that, cuz I've got chickeny hands. I just take the skin and the butter and I put it underneath like that. And take some of this marinade and not just put it on the top, but also put it inside as well. Take these onions. I'll face them down like that. And the garlic. And I'll

take our beautiful chicken. Right. That is going to taste incredible. All of this marinade here. Don't waste any of that. We'll put that on top. So, that's going to go in the oven for about 50 minutes to an hour at 200° C, 400 fah. I'm going to have a little wash up. Okay. So, we're going to do lardons. If you can just put a little bit of olive oil in there, Joe. Yeah. Doesn't matter which one. That one's great. Lovely smoked streaky bacon. This is just stuff from the supermarket. I want the ladons to be like golden crunchy.

Put a little bit of black pepper on these as well. So, after about a minute, you can see that's nice and golden. Lardon's done. And I'm now going to do some croutons. Use any bread that you can get your hands on. So just cut them into sort of rough dice. So Jay, do you mind um just sprinkling those into there? The only missing trick is the dressing. Dijon mustard is the beginning of the story. A nice generous one or two teaspoons olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Try that. Delicious. Right. Nice. Yeah. So two tablespoons of lovely red wine vinegar. What you can do if you're geeky is you can blend an olive oil with an extra virgin olive oil. Normally it's like three or four times the amount of oil to vinegar. And then the little honey, little teaspoon going in there. Let's lay out the salad and we'll be good to go. Let's have this little bit of radish. Now it's time for the really classic bit, the rockall. What we're doing is taking an average salad to the next level. Last but not least, a nice handful of grated walnuts.

I got the lovely lardons. That is a fine salad. Jules, put a few croutons on the top. Beautiful dressing. Look at that thick, gorgeous French dressing. Finish it with some lovely herbs, fennel. And you've got those lovely chai flowers right now. Now look at those. And these are banging season. So Jules, if you can sprinkle those over the top in a nice flourish, I'll finely slice these. The chai flowers are like the most delicate sort of fragrant sweet flavor. That chicken's had about 50 minutes. The spatchcocking at 200 does roast very, very fast.

Look at that chicken. That is full of deliciousness. This is my idea of heaven. Just plate up two lovely plates of food and have a nice little bit of lunch together. Hungry? Yeah. You can tell if a chicken's cooked nicely. If that meat just kind of comes off the bone, not just easily. Can you see how juicy it is? Completely moist. Beautifully cooked through. And I know someone that might want to try it. Let's get a bit without any of that garlic flavoring. Conquer.

He was literally just going under round to find you. Yeah. Can't believe the dog gets a bit of chicken before me. Let's get in here. Take out a nice little watch. Make sure you've got a little bit of everything on there. There you go. The love of my life. Why don't you sit at my desk over there? I'll come and join you. I haven't set up the proper table here yet. How is it, Jay? Amazing. The best lunch ever. Really?

Yeah. It's right on my street. Does that mean you'll come over to my little shack more often? Yeah, I will. Definitely. I'm going to have to get a table here, though. I love it. It's so good. Leaves. crouton bacon dressing. The cheese is the best bit. That explosion of cheese. So good. Yeah. Such a delicious salad. Now yours. Mhm. When we finish this. Yeah. Can you help me with the washing up? Absolutely. I've got a recipe for you guys. Fajas. This is a family classic in our house. We love it. These chicken fajitas are a

fantastic way of packing in loads of colorful veg, plus protein and dairy for balance. Build your own wraps, then demolish as a family. This lunch is fun, delicious, and super good for you. First up, to get the best out of my veg, I'm creating an indoor barbecue vibe with a cooling rack over the hob. So, we're going to ruin the skins here. We're going to burn it and blister it, but under the skin will be juicy, untouched flesh. It's going to be gorgeous in there. I want to do a marinade now for the chicken. In a large dish, add a tablespoon of red wine vinegar and olive oil.

A few dashes of chipotle Tabasco. Two teaspoons of sweet smoked paprika. Big flavor and not too hot. Then crush in two cloves of garlic for an extra hum of flavor. Season with salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of dried oregano. Just shake it up all around. And that is going to be amazing flavor. Finally, add a large peeled red onion. And that's the marinade done. Time to check on the veggies. Already, I can smell the veggies toasting up. And you know, you know when you walk into a house and that smells going on that there's going to be something really tasty for dinner. Now, let's turn the peppers and oagene over.

Look at that. Properly burnt. All this skin will be removed, but the flavors it's producing underneath are well worth it. Inside, it's steaming, but the kind of burning smokes it. So, it's really, really an extraordinary flavor if you've never done this before. And totally worth every single bit of care and love that happens over there. Beautiful. Now, for our super lean chicken breast, which are a fantastic source of protein, helping our muscles, young and old, stay strong and healthy. So for four people, we're using two breasts. Go freerange chicken if you can and then have less of it. So up the quality, down the quantity. You don't feel like you're missing out. And the quantities are just

perfect for this dish. If you're vegetarian, get beans happening on here. Lovely. Uh and big up the veg even more. Slice the chicken into 1 cm strips. Then mix it up in the marinade, coating every last bit. You want the flavor to go all the way through, right? So, of course, if you can marinate overnight, beautiful. An hour's brilliant. And even if you marinate now and cook it straight away, it's going to be better than nothing, right? But we are creating incredible, incredible flavor. When that cooks, it's going to be amazing. Beautiful. While that sits and soaks up the goodness, my veggies are ready. So, I want to cover them in a bowl to steam and cool for 10 minutes. Then, peel off

that burnt skin. You want to get the worst of the skin off, but don't kind of go getting super uptight about it. Just, you know, some chefs, you know, run it under a tap, but the kind of big no with that is between the skin that's burnt and the flesh is the sweetest, most delicious, tasty caramel. And if you just wash it under a tap cuz it's easier, all that flavor goes with it. So you can see when you just steam it like that, you can just run your hand over it and it pretty much all comes off. So what a lovely way to cook. Once the burnt skin is removed, scoop out the now super soft oene and slice up the peppers into similarized strips as the chicken.

We're going to get in there with some coriander and then we're going to hit it with lime juice. But look at the colors, guys. Beautiful. Now, in a screaming hot pan, go in the marinated chicken. I want that lovely marinade to cake and cooking to the chicken. After 3 or 4 minutes, turn everything over. Yes, that's what we want. Beautifully colored. This is going to be so good in a wrap. Quickly heat up some tortillas for a few seconds on each side just to soften and warm. And once all the chicken is beautifully golden, it's fajita time. I love to serve it in the pan like this. Serve it sizzling. Everyone can dig in and create their own perfect chicken and veg fajitas. I like mine with feta cheese bombs, avocado

scoops, coriander, and a squeeze of lime. And that, my friends, is a beautiful little dish. Coming in at just 448 calories per portion, this is a wrap winning on every level. And it's going to go everywhere. Yeah. Mhm. Just what an incredible way to get loads of veggies into your diet. Really fun, familyfriendly food. Serve that with big old salad. Happy days. So, the recipe that I'm going to share with you today is a beautiful one. We're going to make the most incredible roast chicken Caesar salad with the ultimate smoky bacon croutons. It's going to have a beautiful cheesy creamy dressing. It's going to be so good. So, first of all, roast chicken. Now, let me show you

how to make it so tasty that this will also make the best and most delicious croutons. You're going to love it, guys. You're going to love it so much. So, what I've got here is some beautiful fresh herbs. Right, we've got thyme here, sage, rosemary. Any of those are amazing. If you haven't got fresh herbs, use dried herbs. It's about adding fragrance and flavor to this beautiful chicken to give you the crispiest, most delicious skin. So, what I want to do is bruise out of these herbs the natural oils. So, I'm going to get some salt into here and then let's have a little bash up. So, have a look in there, Jaws. The smell. When you hear this noise, you know something tasty is coming. The smell is amazing. It

does smell great. So good. Now Poppy, you are a fan of Caesar salad, aren't you? Yeah, I love this. She loves it. This one is going to be exciting. Exciting. Um, garlic cloves. Just two cloves of garlic goes into this. I'll leave the skin on. Why? Because all the herbs and garlic's going to fall off the chicken anyway and it would have done its job. And then now just a little bit of lubrication. That's actually some rape seed oil. Just about 3 tablespoons. Just enough to kind of plug into the herbs and transmit all that flavor.

Actually, one thing I will do, I'll nick a bit of worshshire sauce. So, I'll mix that in. Now, chicken. So, I'm going to get my hands dirty now. I'm going to get in there and have a little massage. Um, you can use scissors or a knife. I want to show you a preparation that is very, very straightforward. Right, you just get a nice big knife. go down the back of the chicken. Just gently, gently. Don't put any weight on it. So, I'm just running my knife down the back. I know it's not glamorous, but flavor is not always glamorous. And then what we can do is open out this chicken. So, once you've opened out the chicken like a

book, then you can kind of put some weight on it. And if you have a little look at that, Jules. So, I'm going to now take the olive oil and herbs. I'm going to rub this all over the bird. Now, what's going to happen is we're going to get all the flavor, the garlic, the seasoning right into all the cracks and crannies. So, look, now we've rubbed all of that in there. We're going to put this tray with the chicken in the oven for 50 minutes at 200° C. Then after that, I'll show you the most incredible trick to create the best smoky bacon croutons ever. Okay? And of course, I'm going to wash my hands and the knife and the pestle mo properly. Jules, follow

me. Can you open the oven for me as well done with our chicken hand? Yep. Open the door. Okie dokie. So, that will go in. Close up, Jules. Close up. Yes. Go on, chicken. Do good work. Okay. So, while that chicken is roasting up a treat, I want to show you how to make the most delicious creamy dressing. I'm going to use one of these little food processors because I think it's quite fun. So, you want one tiny piece of garlic going in our machine. Then, I'm going to go in with not Dija mustard, but whole grain. Uh I'm going to go in with a good old teaspoon or two of woristers sauce. One of the key ingredients in this is anchovies. That's

what you would have in a classic Caesar. Um the anchovies will give you that kind of hit of umami. Now if you don't know what umami is, it's the fifth flavor, right? So you have sweet, you have sour, you have salty. It's from friend. It's just from friends and it goes unagi. OH, IT'S UNAGI. I'M TRYING TO DO A RECIPE. YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT FRIENDS. What's going on? It's so funny. Look. Okay. So, I'm doing my expression of a Caesar salad. Right. So, we've got half a garlic clove. We've got a heat teaspoon of nice uh whole grain mustard.

We've got a couple of teaspoons of woria sauce. Um I would normally put anchovi in it. I haven't got any. Um, you can even not use it, but if you want that lovely hit, I've got here just some tiny little sardines. So, just one of those will make all the difference. And the oil that it comes in is very good. Now, in there as well, uh, instead of parmesan, I'm going to use some lovely farmhouse cheddar. So, I'll just grate some of that cheddar like that. So, you know, if you haven't got cheddar, red leester, any nice hard cheese will be fantastic. So, I'll put that cheese into here. I hope your close-ups are good today, girl. It is so good. And then I've got rape seed oil today.

Um, instead of olive oil, use olive oil. Sunflower oil. Rape seed is a nice British product. It's nice and smooth. Now, if you want to use slightly less oil and add like a tang and freshness, yogurt is very nice to give you a really creamy dressing. So, that goes in and then we whiz up. Um I'm going to give it some lemon juice. So juice of one lemon. You want it quite lemony. So lemon juice has gone in. So that my friends will be the most incredible dressing and it will change everything. Then let's get on to the salad leaves over here. I've just washed um some round lettuce and a gem lettuce.

Right. Of course you can make it your own and use what you like. Okay. So, we're going to use every part. So, cut the stalk off and we'll celebrate that. It's nutritionally just as delicious. We'll take the outer leaves off. We will just slice these nice and fine. And then these inner leaves we just cut off. And they're going to hold on to croutons and hold on to the dressing in the most spectacular way. Beautiful. That's what makes the difference. Now, this is round lettuce here, right? So, the inner part here I will just click off. So, these will all go in and the stalk we will slice again.

Beautiful. Now, it doesn't matter if you haven't got a salad spinner and you just get a tea towel, give your salad a wash. You put your salad in there like that. Bring up the corners, right? Look around you. And then you just went around. You always You become a human salad spinner. I'm going to lay out the bigger salad leaves first and then we'll sprinkle over these all the little cups. So look, that's your kind of landing pad for dressing and croutons. Now, if you take an everyday carrot and a speed

peeler, just a few little gratings are beautiful. But then you could also apply that to things that are in season like asparagus. And just because we're in lockdown doesn't mean that, you know, asparagus stops growing and stops getting sold. It's out there. Make use of it. And of course, when it's raw, super nutritious. You could of course do exactly the same with cucumber. You can even introduce a little bit of fruit, few little flexcks of green apple. So now we're going to go on to the world of croutons. So I'm going to take some bread. You can use any bread you can get your hands on. And I want to kind of cut a fairly nice big handful of bread into croutons. You can tear them up if you

want. So, what I want to do is really kind of treat the crouton like the roast potato or the chip. Like, how do you get it to be as delicious and as sumptuious? And there is a way to do it, right? Think about all those incredible juices that would normally make a gravy in the chicken tray going on that. That's going to be good. And then smoky bacon. Yes. That's what I mean. Yes, Jules. Yes. So, I'm using a serrated knife to do this. like two big handfuls of croutons. This is for like seven people. I've got some rashes of bacon, right? Smoked bacon, of course. That's another element of flavor to create the best smoky bacon croutons ever. So, look, the chicken's had about

50 minutes now. Let's do the next bit of the recipe that makes the biggest bit of flavor. Come on, George. Follow me, girl. We're going to make the best croutons ever. So, what's going to happen is the chicken will carry on cooking and basically rain down on these amazing croutons. Come on. Lunch time. Lovely peeps. Let's get in this oven. Oh, look at that. So, nice and crispy all over. So, what's nice is we can just start pulling this apart. Look how tender that is. All right, guys. Got chicken. Make way. Yummy. All right. Croutons. Okay. Is that dressing? Your buddy's face.

Bacon. Huh? They're bacon and croutons. Yeah. So, bacon croutons. Look at these crunchy bits, guys. We toss everything up so everyone gets a bit of everything. And Jules, would you like us? Whatever you find. So, there you go, guys. That's my roast chicken Caesar salad gone. Give it a go. I love this recipe. This one is a cracker. This is haresa roast chicken with sweet potatoes, crispy chickpeas, tortillas, and a chili and yogurt dip. It's so good. It's a kind of feasting dish. And it's really affordable, guys, and such fun to make and eat. So, let's do it. The story begins with a little vinegar, but it's going to be propped up by a secret little ingredient, harissa

paste. This is North African chili paste. It is not super hot. It's quite mild. It's got layer upon layer of flavor. So, we're going to use two teaspoons. And this is going to literally reinvent your roast chicken. This is the base for three ingredients. So, we're keeping this recipe simple. First up, chickpeas will go straight in to this tray. Sweet potatoes. We're going to treat them like a jacket potato, right? So, just throw them in whole. Easy, easy, easy. So, we're using a freerange chicken. You buy what you can afford, okay? But this chicken is going to go in this tray and we're going to rub it up and everything is going to be tossed in that beautiful harissa

dressing. And look, let's just talk about healthy little swaps. Okay, look. Potatoes delicious. Love them. Sweet potatoes, however, nutritionally much more robust and delicious. Get the chicken, put it breast side down. Some seasoning. Let's wash my hands properly. So, in the oven it goes for an hour and 20 minutes at 180°C. So, the chicken is in the oven. Just go and chill out literally for an hour and turn the chicken halfway through. The chickpeas will get crispy, the sweet potatoes will get soft, and as we sort of baste it and turn the chicken around, flavor galore.

What I need to do now is a really beautiful but simple saw. So, I'm going to use carrots, red cabbage, apples. I'm going to dress this saw with a little olive oil. And then I'm going to use some vinegar. This is red wine vinegar. You can use white wine vinegar. Get the apple and grate the whole thing. Core and all. So the carrots, we're not even going to peel it. If you wanted to use up other vegetables in your fridge, so you're not wasting things. Go for it. With our red cabbage, I just need a quarter. For me, what I love about this is you take everyday humble, really affordable things and make things that are kind of frumpy, exciting. Look at that. Come on. Look at the colors to

give it a nice mix up. Have a taste. Oh my lord. the sweetness, the acidity, the tang, the crunch. I love it. If you wanted it to be a creamy saw, just add a little bit of yogurt. Really, really good. And so much healthier than mayonnaise. A brilliant, healthy swap. Now, I have an optional extra. I'm using a bit of mint cuz I just love it. It's nice in the saw. It'll be nice over the dish at the end. Beautiful. Right, let's get this chicken out of the oven. Oh, it smells incredible. Come on. Look at that. Absolutely delicious. It's juicy. So you can tell if the chicken's cooked, if the juices run clear. This is cooked.

We're going to let it rest. Now take this sweet potato and just bust it open like that. Look at the color. It's very hot. You might want to use a pair of tongs. Come on. Look at that. Hot and steamy. Just pour those juices and the chickpeas over the chicken. These are so tasty. Those little bits of extra mint if you've got them. Absolutely beautiful. Now we need the tortilla. I'm using a brilliant healthy swap. So this is the whole wheat tortillas. You're going to get more fiber than a regular white tortilla. Warm these up. 30 seconds. Last but not least, if you take a little yogurt, it has this incredible cooling, refreshing effect. Take a tiny bit of that harissa and marble it.

Beautiful tortillas. Load it up with nice amount of that saw. Shred the chicken. So, look at this guys. It's going to be delicious. Really nice sweet potatoes. Get those amazing chickpeas as well. Look at that. Flavors galore. So, look, this recipe will feed six people. Uh, but even if it's two or four of you, you got leftovers galore. You'll use all of this. Nothing will go to waste. That harissa yogurt, and it's a little party in your mouth, I'm telling you. Absolutely delicious. So, come on. Let's have a little taste. It's messy. Don't care. That's what I love. It's so tasty. You got the light chili. You got that juicy chicken and those beautiful crispy little chickpeas with that fresh kick of the saw. So guys, honestly, it's messy. It's

delicious. I think you're going to love it.