This recipe comes via Blai’s mother and has become one of our favourites. It’s simple to put together, we almost always have all the ingredients lying about at home and the end result tastes fantastic with the tender chicken and almost caramelised onion and tomato pieces. The Catalans rarely roast chickens whole, preferring to cut them first into pieces; I like this – it gives each piece a chance to get its skin nice and crispy. The recipe can easily be scaled to feed more too.
We like to serve it with kale cooked in the Catalan way with raisins and pine nuts and either some good bread to mop up the delectable sauce or some fried potatoes or, even better, both. I’m also particularly fond of squeezing out the roasted garlic onto some bread. I know I’ll be serving this recipe up a few times over the Christmas season this year!
Catalan Roast Chicken
serves 3-4.
4 chicken legs, separated into drumstick and thigh
olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
dried oregano
1 large onion, sliced thickly
2 tomatoes, sliced thickly
3-4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
about 100ml of white wine or cognac
Preheat your oven to 220 Celsius.
Arrange the chicken pieces skin side up in a roasting pan (they should fit in one layer). Rub them all over with olive oil and then dust with salt, pepper and dried oregano. Arrange the onion and tomato slices in between the chicken pieces. Snap the cinnamon stick in half and then also arrange that, the garlic and the bay leaves around the chicken. Drizzle olive oil over all and then splash on the wine/cognac.
Place in the oven and roast, turning twice throughout the cooking process (they should finish with their skin sides up), until fully cooked, skin burnished brown and much of the liquid has cooked down to a thick, almost gravy (this will take somewhere between 1 hour and 1.5 hours). Serve, spooning the sauce and the roasted onion and tomato over.
Tue, 4 Dec, 2012 at 00:16
this looks very comforting and delicious!
Tue, 11 Dec, 2012 at 17:57
Thank you, kat!
Tue, 4 Dec, 2012 at 00:27
how lovely – wine is added to the mix… hope you’ve been well x shayma
Tue, 11 Dec, 2012 at 17:58
It’s possible to still roast it without wine…but it’s awfully tasty with it! Hope you and family are well, shayma!
Tue, 4 Dec, 2012 at 02:15
Like it lots and have the ingredients. I would slightly adapt it to roast one skinless chicken leg. Well I live alone. Lol but it sounds nice with kale and skinny mash to mop up the gravy.
Tue, 11 Dec, 2012 at 18:02
Mash would be excellent too. I’d recommend roasting two legs and having leftovers!
Tue, 4 Dec, 2012 at 04:49
Interesting w/ the cinnamon. Looks good.
Tue, 11 Dec, 2012 at 18:02
The cinnamon is quite subtle. Its use also seems to be relatively common in Catalan cuisine.
Tue, 4 Dec, 2012 at 07:41
Ooo I can smell this now and it’s amazing. Want!
Tue, 11 Dec, 2012 at 18:03
The smells that come out of your oven when making this are incredible!
Tue, 4 Dec, 2012 at 08:50
Looks really good!
Tue, 11 Dec, 2012 at 18:20
Do try it, Kavey!
Tue, 4 Dec, 2012 at 11:07
This looks really delicious – so hard to beat roast chicken!
Tue, 11 Dec, 2012 at 18:23
I do think this may be my favourite roast chicken recipe!
Fri, 7 Dec, 2012 at 17:05
Looks really delicious Su-Lin
Tue, 11 Dec, 2012 at 18:23
It’s some great chicken, Kirk!
Sat, 8 Dec, 2012 at 15:36
Hey there!! Ive been MIA for way too long!! Catching up with things here, this looks delicious. Wld be perfect with in these colder days I can imagine!! I’ll have to make sure I give this a try!!
Tue, 11 Dec, 2012 at 18:28
Hello again, Marianna! Yes, this is great for winter and it’s mainly winter when we make it!
Sun, 23 Dec, 2012 at 23:35
oooh – the addition of cinnamon sounds interesting. Will definitely be giving this a try.
Wed, 13 Feb, 2013 at 22:52
It’s delicious! There’s just a hint in the overall flavour….not a lot.
Wed, 24 Jul, 2013 at 20:24
This looks so yummy! This is on for tonight.:)