One-pan chicken

My chicken guy at the market is a very sweet fellow who doesn´t mind selling me only half a chicken. Free range chickens are so big that even half is over a kilo, and that´s a lot of chicken for me. Not that I dislike chicken, but I do find it hard to be fascinated by it. However, stomach flu being what it is, and my baby being now in the grip of it, chicken breast must be gently poached.
So my half of a big chicken gives me one big breast half, skin off, that the butcher cuts out. The thigh and the drumstick. A wing. A piece of backbone, and the neck.
Wing, neck and bone go into the freezer for the making of stock whenever my storage runs low. The other two pieces I roasted today following the method called by la Lawson "one-pan chicken". It results in roast chicken that is quite ok, but that I am happy to leave for a sandwich or pot pie some other day. The star of the show for me are the vegetables; potatoes, onions and carrots that soak up the chicken juices and the fat, char and burn and turn crispy or melting and are just the best thing ever.
This time, I spooned yogurt over them and it was quite a revelation.

The simple things

I´ve been down a couple of days with the stomach flu that´s going around.
Whenever I´ve had stomach trouble, always the get-better food has been the same. The first day one is allowed nothing but lemon water, with sugar and maybe a little salt. Then plain white rice, perhaps some dry toast, tea, if you´re looking good, and a little boiled chicken. Next day you might progress to boiled ham, and chicken broth, or yogurt with a little stwed apple.
You know that you´re definitely getting better when you´re allowed boiled potatoes, in their skins. These come with a thin trickle of olive oil and some crunchy salt, and they are the most delicious thing in the world. Not just because you know that you will soon be back to normal, but because after some days of eating really dull stuff your palate is clean, your senses are sharp and you are reminded of just how great very simple things can taste.
Luckily for me, it´s come just in time to feel pleasantly detoxed and mammothly hungry for my mother´s birthday today.