Apero roast chicken – probably the best roast chicken in the world

Thankfifi - The Ampersand Hotel, London-20

Remember a little while back we stayed at The Ampersand in London and I pretty much wanted to marry the chef after we ate in Apero?  Just kidding chef.  Kind of.

Well Chris Golding kindly shared the chicken recipe with us and, I won’t lie to you, it is probably the best roast chicken in the world.

Apero Roast Chicken (by Chris Golding)
Whole roast free range chicken with bacon, sherry & girolles

1.5kg whole free range chicken
1 white onion, chopped
1 handful button onions (blanched & peeled)
1 handful girolle mushrooms (or any wild)
1 small packet bacon lardons
small knob of butter
1 cup white wine (nothing too expensive)
1 cup homemade chicken stock
1 cup double cream
1 slug sherry (Chris uses Pedro Ximenez)
salt & white pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200C and roast the chicken for 45 mins.   Chris says hot and fast is the secret when cooking a chicken!!  (Two exclamations – that means it’s pretty important to him).

Whilst the chicken is cooking, brown the bacon lardons with the button onions in a pan for about 10 mins before adding the mushrooms for another few.  Remove from the pan and set aside.  Sweat the chopped onion in a small knob of butter, add the wine and reduce by half before adding a cup of chicken stock (ok, ok, I didn’t use homemade but Chris says it’s acceptable to sub in supermarket readymade).  Reduce by half again then add the cream and this time just reduce by a quarter.  Pass the sauce through a sieve to remove the onions.  Add a good slug of sherry (I cheated and used Marsala wine because that’s just what I had), season with salt and white pepper… this is your sauce.  (You know those onions in the sieve?  Eat most of them because, even though they’re technically waste, they’re still pretty good… on toast).

When the chicken’s cool enough to handle get a big strong man with a meat cleaver to chop it into 6 pieces, or thereabouts, for you.  Not because a woman can’t do it but simply because doing those kind of things makes mean feel like, well, men.  And that’s nice.

Pop the chicken pieces into the sauce along with the bacon, button onions and mushrooms and heat a little before serving.

We served ours with a green, lemon dressed salad and bread but mostly because I didn’t have the brain power to create anything else.  However, if you want to recreate one of my most favourite meals ever, here’s the menu (I made the waitor write it down for me on the night)…

burrata with truffle honey

goujons of plaice with basil mayonnaise and apple salad

whole roast free range chicken with bacon, sherry and girolles
puree potatoes and savoy cabbage

ricotta and lime cheesecake with limoncello jelly and lemon sorbet

gorgonzola cheese with quince jelly

Thanks Chris for the epic meal and thanks so much for sharing the recipe with us!

Thankfifi- Apero roast chicken-2

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Thankfifi- Apero roast chicken-5

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Thankfifi - The Ampersand Hotel, London-21

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11 Comments

  1. 30 Apr / 10:26 am

    That looks amazing and makes me really hungry xD
    xx

    • Thankfifi
      30 Apr / 4:20 pm

      you should make it! after a whole chicken you won’t be hungry I promise

    • Thankfifi
      30 Apr / 4:20 pm

      truly it is

    • Thankfifi
      30 Apr / 4:21 pm

      thanks very much charlotte – most often it’s the husband’s photo skills but I can take credit for the recipe photos 🙂

  2. Gaylesbury
    30 Apr / 8:01 pm

    One word – YUM! Definately trying this at the weekend x

    • Thankfifi
      30 Apr / 11:57 pm

      oooh will be interested to hear if you love it as much as us

  3. 30 Apr / 10:57 pm

    Wow, yummy is all I can say. Thanks for posting the images and the recipe and feel free to drop by me too soon.

    • Thankfifi
      30 Apr / 11:57 pm

      my pleasure I promise 😉

  4. Vaiva
    5 Jun / 9:42 pm

    Such a coinsidence:) just had dinner there on Monday!!! Didn’t even know that place before…but loved it:)

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