Chicken with White Wine and Walnut Sauce

from April's cookbook club pick: Green Mountains by Caroline Eden

Caroline has generously shared with us three recipes from Green Mountains. Head here to read more about this book and why it’s April’s cookbook club pick and find out how to join in with the online discussion about it.

At a restaurant in Dilijan we ate roast chicken that had, to me, a distinctly Georgian flavour given the wine and walnut sauce. To serve with it, I suggest keeping it simple with a green salad, a plate of sliced tomatoes or a cucumber and herb salad.

SERVES 4

1 whole free-range chicken without giblets (about 1.5kg/3lb 5oz)

Juice of 1⁄2 lemon

1 tbsp olive oil

11⁄2 tsp sea salt flakes

Freshly ground black pepper

1⁄2 tsp sweet paprika

1⁄2 tsp red pepper flakes

FOR THE SAUCE

60g/21⁄4oz walnuts

1 large garlic clove, roughly chopped

1⁄2 tsp ground coriander

1⁄4 tsp ground blue fenugreek

1⁄2 tsp ground cumin

Juice of 1⁄2 lemon

100ml/scant 1⁄2 cup hot chicken stock

2 tbsp white wine

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6. Remove any fat around the cavity of the chicken. Squeeze over the lemon juice, drizzle with the oil, season the chicken inside and out and sprinkle over the spices. Put the squeezed lemon half into the cavity. Place in a roasting tin, breast side down, and roast the chicken for 1 hour, or until the juices run clear after piercing the thigh and there is no pink meat. Cover and leave in a warm place to rest while you make the sauce.

Toast the walnuts in a small, dry frying pan then put all the ingredients, except the stock and wine, in a food processor and whizz until you have a wet sand texture. Transfer it to a saucepan and add the hot stock and any juices from the resting chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often until thickened, then add the wine, and cook down again for a couple of minutes until you have a hummus- like sauce. Remove from the heat, leave to cool to room temperature and check the seasoning.

Serve the chicken hot or cold with the walnut sauce.