Nigella Lawson shared her recipe for a warming one-pot chicken with lemon and orzo in her book Cook, Eat, Repeat.
This recipe serves four to six people, making it a great contender for a hassle-free mid-week family meal.
Ingredients
1 chicken (approx. 1.5kg)
3 fat cloves of garlic
2 medium carrots (approx. 300g)
2 medium leeks (approx. 400g trimmed weight, or approx. 600g if you’re buying them untrimmed)
1 x 15ml tbsp olive oil
2 lemons
2 tsp dried tarragon (or dried thyme)
2 tsp sea salt flakes (or 1 teaspoon fine sea salt)
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½ tsp dried chilli flakes
1.5 litres cold water
300g orzo pasta
6 x 15ml tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, plus more to serve
freshly grated Parmesan, to serve
Instructions
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Start by untying the chicken, if it’s bound, and remove any strings. If time allows, let it sit on a cutting board for about 40 minutes to take off the chill. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC Fan.
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Prep the vegetables: peel the garlic cloves, peel and cut the carrots into thirds lengthwise, then into batons. Clean the leeks thoroughly to get rid of any dirt and slice them into approximately 2½cm rounds.
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Heat oil in a large, heavy-based casserole with a tight-fitting lid. Use a long enamelled cast-iron oval casserole dish that fits the chicken snugly, leaving just a bit of space around it for the veggies later. Place the chicken in the hot oil, breast-side down, to brown the skin. This takes about 3–5 minutes over high heat until the skin is nicely golden. Then, turn the chicken over.
