Wellie's Smoked Chicken Starter

[wellie]

OK, this is a dish Trousers and I had in a posh pub once, and we loved the taste of it so much, that I spent time 'recreating it' as near-as-dammit as I could, so that we could enjoy it with our friends at home, and it goes VERY loosely like this:

Serves 6-8 as a starter or light salad lunch

1 whole smoked cooked chicken (am I allowed to say the word Waitrose?)
Not dead yet, so I think that maybe I am....

Hellmans Mayonnaise
Puy Lentils
Home-Sunblushed-Tomatoes
Home-grown Rocket and other salad leaves
Sea Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Now there's no right or wrong way of producing this dish really, because all you do is take all the smoked chicken meat off the carcass and put it in a bowl. Take sufficient of the smoked chicken meat for the number of peoples you're wanting to feed, and chop it coursely, mixing it with the, and it HAS to be Hellmans Mayo, until you've got a nicely 'moist' kind of Sandwich Mix consistency - get my drift? Okay. Now cover the bowl with clingfilm, and put it in your fridge for a while whilst you get a couple of Ramekin dishes or similar (depending on the size of portion you want to feed each person? up to you) and get the roll of clingfilm out of your drawer and lay a sheet of it tucked into and over the sides of each ramekin to line the inside.

Take the chicken mixture out of the fridge and fill each clingfilm-lined ramekin with it, pressing the mixture down with the back of a spoon, and then fold over the excess clingfilm over the top, to stop the mixture drying out, and place each of the ramekins back in the fridge to kind of set overnight.

When you're ready to serve them, unwrap the clingfilm from the exposed top end of the ramekin, up-end it that side down on the plate, and remove the ramekin/clingfilm bits. Are you still awake?
Then toss a lot of salad leaves, rocket and sunblush toms around it to make it look pretty.

Nudge me later to wake me up if you're interested in the Puy Lentil bit?
Trousers says you HAVE to have the Puy Lentils with it, or it's Not Cricket.
And actually, I agree with him, but who am I to say?

I thank you..... Curtsey. X

[moggssue]

Cheers m'dear!! And Trousers was absolutely right (he says of course he was!) the lentils were just perfick with it!!

[Novice Gardener]

Mmmmmmmmm, sounds lovely. Have you tried smoking your own chicken? I do it all the time on the BBQ. Its really easy and you don't have to keep watching over it - you can just leave it with the lid down for about 1.5 - 2 hours and it looks after itself

[kirsty b]

I would certainly be interested in how to. Got a little BBQ in the garage that would be good for the job. It's one of those little half-barrel type things with a lid. (used it to roast a chook and do jacket spuds when camping)

[Novice Gardener]

I would certainly be interested in how to. Got a little BBQ in the garage that would be good for the job. It's one of those little half-barrel type things with a lid. (used it to roast a chook and do jacket spuds when camping)

I do mine on a gas BBQ, but you could easily do it on a charcoal one. Heres how I do mine. Light the BBQ and heat with the lid down till hot enough to cook on. When its up to heat, turn one burner off, keeping the lid closed. Take some smoking chips that you've soaked in water for about 20 mins, wrap them in a foil parcel and make a couple of small holes in the parcel with a skewer. Place the foil parcel over the burner thats still lit, close the lid & wait around 5 mins till you can smell the chips start to smoke. Take your chicken and rub with oil, then place over the burner you turned off. Again close the lid and leave till cooked - depending on the size of the chicken it could take anything from 1 - 2 hours. If you're using a charcoal bbq, just light the coals as normal, then when ready to cook, push them over one side and cook the chicken over the other side.

[Tracey]

Wellie

That sounds lovely, thanks for sharing it. What do you do with the puy lentils?

Tracey

[wellie]

Ooh no, I've never smoked anything yet myself, NG, but would love to. How do you do yours?

OK, measure out one tablespoon of Puy Lentils per person into a saucepan, add half a pint of boiled water from the kettle, and half a teaspoon of vegetable bouillon powder, stirring it in. Bring it back up to the boil and simmer steadily until the lentils are only just tender. Drain, cool and serve on the plate with the smoked chicken etc. The bouillon adds a nice salty, flavoursome taste, unlike just cooking them in water.

[tricia]

Thank you Novice Gardener - I love smoked chicken and we don't have a Waitrose anywhere near so if the weather stays fine that will be Saturday's supper sorted.

Tricia