Food: Choose cheap & easy chicken

Sep 16 2007 Michael Kilkie

Most people want a recipe to boast two important features - it must be cheap and easy to cook.

Today's delicious dish, above, for slow-cooked chicken legs with baby veg has both - it won't cost a lot and is a breeze to prepare.

It's a great family meal that makes use of one of the cheaper cuts of meat - and regular readers will know I'm a huge fan of these. If treated properly they are full of flavour.

This is a one-pot dish which can be placed in the centre of the table for everyone to help themselves. A great bonus of this is that you don't have hundreds of pans to wash.

Quite often if you're cooking a chicken or other types of bird, certain parts will end up dry before other parts are cooked.

So while it's lovely to roast a whole chicken, it's easier to time and cook the separate pieces of the bird on their own. This is because the density of the meat varies.

For example, a chicken breast will cook and dry out fairly quickly, while a cut - such as today's leg - is on the bone and this helps keep the meat moist, making it suitable for slow cooking. Keeping the skin on is an important thing to do during cooking as well, even if you don't plan to eat it. This also helps to keep the meat moist.

Personally, I love devouring the freshly cooked crispy skin of a chicken but if you're very health conscious you may want to discard it before eating.

I've recommended using baby veg with the chicken as this does not take a lot of preparation. The most work it will need is probably just a scrub.

Once it's all ready, just serve up and let everyone help themselves.

The only other things you will need is crusty bread for mopping up the juices and a glass of wine to wash it all down. Enjoy!