Recipe

Summer 2021

Genevieve Taylor’s Smoked Chicken, Alabama White Sauce, Watercress, Tomato & Crouton Salad

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Serving: 6

Chicken

Ingredients

6 Chicken legs

1 Tbsp Maldon Salt

2 Thick slices of good bread, cubed with 3 Tbsp olive oil

3 Garlic cloves

Couple sprigs of rosemary

6 Vine tomatoes halved

2 x 80g bags watercress

Pepper

For the Alabama white sauce

200g Mayonnaise

100ml Cider vinegar

Juice of half lemon

2 Tbsp hot horseradish sauce

1 Tbsp black peppercorns crushed

1 Tsp chilli flakes

Preparation

The day before you want to cook, dry brine the chicken. Make a few deep slashes in the meat of each chicken leg and sprinkle the salt all over, rubbing it in well. Set on a rack hung over a tray and slide into the slide uncovered overnight.
The following day, fire up the barbecue ready for direct and indirect cooking.
Set the chicken onto the grill bars away from the fire and leave to cook indirectly, with the lid down, for a good 20 minutes, turning and rotating once or twice.
While the chicken is cooking, make the sauce by whisking together the mayonnaise, vinegar, lemon juice, horseradish, crushed peppercorns and chilli flakes in a bowl. Season to taste with salt. Transfer half to a small serving bowl to use as a dressing for the finished dish. Take the other half to the barbecue and have a silicone pastry brush ready for basting.
Tip the bread cubes into a fireproof pan (no wooden or plastic handles) and drizzle over 2 tbsp of the olive oil. Use the flat of a large knife to bruise the garlic cloves and add them to the pan with the rosemary. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil onto the tomato halves and season with salt and pepper.
Once the chicken has had its 20 minutes’ cooking time, begin basting with the sauce. Brush all over regularly and keep cooking and turning for a further 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. When tested with a digital probe thermometer in the thickest part of the leg, it should read 74°C.
When you start basting the chicken, set the pan of bread over the direct fire and cook until crisp and golden, tossing to cook evenly. Remove the croutons from the fire and set aside. At the same time, rest the tomato halves over the fire so they grill and soften, turning to cook both sides.
To serve, scatter the watercress onto a large platter and top with the grilled tomatoes. Add the chicken legs and sprinkle over the croutons. Drizzle with some of the reserved sauce and serve the rest alongside.

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