The other day, I tweeted and posted on Facebook my supper of chicken on spelt with parsley and toasted pinenuts, and lots of you requested the recipe. Well, there's no recipe as such, but here's how I went about it.
I put a good organic chicken (I am a big fan of The Black Farmer organic chook, which I find at Waitrose or on Ocado) on a roasting tray and drizzled garlic oil over it and splashed a bit of dry white vermouth in the tin then roasted it for about an hour in a very hot oven. When it was cooked, I took it out of the oven, added a little water from a recently boiled kettle and some drops of soy and let the chicken sit for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, I got on with the spelt. If you haven't come across spelt, it's — to taste, at least — like a nutty, wholemeal barley. Sharpham Park are great champions of spelt, and many supermarkets stock theirs, but you can certainly find spelt easily in health stores. Cook according to packet instructions, or in a rice cooker. Also, The Food Doctor range has a pre-cooked spelt in a pouch that you just microwave. Don't worry if you can't find it; brown rice would work well in its place for this dish.
While the spelt was cooking, I toasted a handful of pinenuts by 'frying' them in a dry pan until slightly scorched in parts, and chopped some parsley.
All I then did was put some spelt in a bowl, shred the chicken and add in on top, then I poured the simple but flavoursome juices over. Finally, I scattered over the toasted pinenuts and chopped parsley!
I heartily recommend you follow suit....
