Roast Chicken with Mushroom Tarhonya
·Prepare the chicken and tomatoes
Rinse and clean the whole chicken, then rub it inside and out with a mixture of oil, salt, pepper and crushed garlic. Arrange the washed tomatoes in a roasting tin, and you can also brush them lightly with the flavoured oil and season with a little salt.
Place in the roasting tin
Set the chicken breast-side down on top of the tomatoes. Add just a splash of water – about 100 ml is enough. Insert the roasting probe into the chicken (no worries if you don't have one) and put it in to roast.
Roasting temperature
I used the steam setting, finishing with the grill at the end to get the skin beautifully crisp. I started with the oven at full heat – 230°C – then after 20 minutes lowered it to 150°C and finished roasting the chicken at that temperature.
Baste with the pan juices
Don't forget to baste the chicken regularly with the pan juices – ours turns out lovely and lightly tomatoey, giving the chicken amazing flavour! Roast until the internal temperature reaches 80°C. If your oven doesn't have a probe, a kitchen thermometer works just as well.
Crispy skin
At the end, turn the grill up to full for a short while, keeping an eye on the chicken so the skin doesn't burn but crisps up beautifully.
Base for the mushroom tarhonya
Heat some oil in a large pot and sauté the roughly chopped onion and mushrooms in it. After about five minutes, add the dry tarhonya and toast for another five minutes.
Add the water
The tarhonya grains should turn a light golden colour. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in water – roughly one and a half times the volume of the tarhonya, so in our case, 3 cups of water.
Cream at the end
Cook, stirring and tasting as you go. If the water has evaporated and the tarhonya is still firm, just add a splash more. For the perfect finish, stir in about 100 ml of cream right at the end, once it's nearly tender, to make it beautifully creamy.
Stir in the parsley
Once the tarhonya is soft and ready, take it off the heat and stir in some roughly chopped fresh parsley. This side dish is so incredibly good that you'll find you barely need the meat with it.
Tip: what to do with leftovers?
Got leftover chicken, tomatoes and pan juices, just like us? Cook up some rice the next day and make a “Czech-style” leftover risotto. Mix the rice with the chopped chicken, tomatoes and juices, and you've got another main meal ready to go.
