we’re going to make the most delicious
simple chicken dish that you’re gonna
love chicken ala mattoni chicken under
the brick it’s a brilliant technique
that we’ve done at James Italian for ten
years now and the chickens delicious
we’re gonna make a homemade pesto and
this is like no pesto you’ve ever seen
before right it’s really really
delicious we like to set ourself apart
we’ve always invested in higher welfare
beautiful free-range chicken this is
from the Coleman family in Devon and
they do a brilliant brilliant free-range
chicken Creedy Carver it’s called and we
use the legs and the breasts for this
dish we’re using the breast and we
marinate that past when that Chef we
marinate the chicken breast in rosemary
garlic oil a little lemon zest and bay
leaf we do that the day before that’ll
make it more tender and then we’re going
to whack this onto the grill so in James
Italian we invented our own Alma Tony
here for that’s heavy and it’s screaming
hot it makes it juicy and it makes the
skin go beautifully crisp while that’s
cooking let me show you a beautiful
pesto now it’s not the same pesto that
you might think you get from the
supermarket right it’s not bad oil and
pine nuts and parmesan no no no no no so
the word pesto means paste and actually
if you go across Italy they have
hundreds hundreds and hundreds of
different pesto’s and what I love is to
be a bit more seasonal about herbs so
we’ve got basil here we’ve got mint here
and we’ve got parsley and all of this is
going to go into a food processor I’m
gonna go in with almonds so we’re not
using pine nuts love almonds and I’m not
toasting them off because I want the
creaminess then we’re gonna go in with
some parmesan a little bit of garlic
olive oil a little lemon zest really
lightens it and then just Whizzer
[Applause]
just literally take seconds and you know
the traditional recipe would use a
pestle and mortar which is lovely you
can bruise the flavor out but actually I
quite like making it in a food processor
you know it does cut the herbs but it
kind of keeps it fresher I think and
then what we want to do is loosen it
with good oil you know you can blend
nuts you can blend cheese’s pecorino x’
parmesan and actually in our pesto we’ve
got a really special extra cheese which
is salted ricotta so just like the
ricotta or the ricotta cheese the light
cheese the white cheese they have
another one which they salt and it’s
delicious and it’s fresh and I love
blending the parmesan with the salted
ricotta it’s so beautiful and so
delicious look at that and then let’s
have a little taste how are we doing
with that chicken chef I’m just thinking
now about balancing I want to get that
parmesan right the garlic’s good the
herbs are really fresh and sometimes I
like to put a little lemon juice with it
– look look at that super crispy so
finish it with a little lemon juice
little olive oil and we’ll stir it up I
like to put the pesto on the base so
when you cut into your chicken you have
to get that pesto over it
we’re gonna get our chicken and I’m just
gonna slice it just once what’s really
beautiful is two things you can double
check that it’s cooked to perfection but
also you expose that Chris penis and
that juicy juicy breast inside and then
to finish it off just a little lemon
juice a little oil and just a little bit
of rocket little wedge of lemon so there
you go guys
chicken Alma Tony loads of love they’re
super simple food but that Creedy carve
a free-range chicken the crispy skin
that juicy breast that homemade seasonal
pesto with the arm and salted ricotta so
good so so good simple food but made
with love come in and see us James Italian