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How to barbecue chicken like chef Mike Davies
As the weather starts to improve, barbecued spatchcocked chicken is one of my favourite ways to cook chicken. I love a herb-fed chicken, which can be bought online direct from the farm and has so much flavour. You can order it spatchcocked, or attempt it at home [visit goodfood.com for guidance].
Submerge your chicken overnight in a simple salt brine, with whatever aromatics you like. At the Camberwell Arms, we use lemons, garlic, thyme and a little bit of sugar. Brining seems like a faff, but the result is a perfectly seasoned, super-juicy chicken.
Light your barbecue, leaving a patch of the grill without charcoal. Once the coals have gone white, grill the chicken, skin-side down, until it’s starting to char just a little, flip it and put it over the non-coal filled part of the grill, then put the lid on. Make a glaze by heating some honey, Aleppo chilli flakes, lemon zest, garlic, lots of black pepper, thyme, and butter in a pan. Every 5-10 mins, brush the chicken with the glaze. It will take 30-45 mins to cook, depending on how hot your grill is.
Take it out and leave to rest under some loose foil. To serve, get a big knife and chop the chicken into pieces on the bone. Plenty of cold beer is a must.
Mike Davies is chef-owner of The Camberwell Arms @thecamberwell arms. His book, Cooking For People, (£30, Pavilion) is out 18 July.
Test kitchen secrets
Making your own dressing is a quick way to elevate summer dishes explains cookery expert
Helena Busiakiewicz
Summer is here which means a salad is the perfect thing for dinner (try salads from this issue on pages 37 and 104). The real joy of a salad, in my opinion, comes through the dressing it’s served with. It helps the leaves and vegetables sing and keeps you coming back, bite after bite.
A good dressing should be a balance of fatty, salty and acidic with just a touch of sweetness. Dressings are emulsions, a just-about stable mixture of things that don’t really want to come together – in this case, oil and acid. The acid comes in the form of vinegar or citrus juice. What we need to bring the two together is a helping hand – and this is where mustard comes in. Mustard is a natural source of lecithin, which helps the process of emulsification. Simply, it helps bring the dressing together, making it creamy and thick.
A quick and easy way to make a dressing is to shake it in a jam jar, then keep it in
