The best chicken you have ever tasted

In the entire history of mankind I wonder how many times someone has said "this is the best chicken you will ever taste". Homo Sapiens has a very special relationship with gallus gallus domesticus, the humble chicken. You will notice that anything that mankind has fucked up beyond all recognition usually has the little latin tag 'domesticus' just to make us think that the chickens natural habitat is living in a fridge in the supermarket at five degrees celcius fully enclosed in plastic wrap and polystyrene and sans feathers. Whatever, we all know what kind of disgusting environments most of the chickens bound for our tables are kept in so why don't we pay a little bit extra and buy free range. Free range, organic chickens have now become affordable and the more people that buy them the cheaper they will become. Don't think that you can't change things, the simple act of you spending a couple more dollars on a free range chook can change the world.



Chicken a la Julia
1 large pot
6 chicken drumsticks (that's 3 organic chickens or 2 biologically enhanced chickens)
2 large onions, peeled and cut in to quarters
6 cloves of garlic peeled
1 courgette
12 button mushrooms
1 large capsicum
12 kalamata olives
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon each of dried parsley, thyme, oregano, rosemary and basil
salt & pepper
1 large preserved lemon (this is a lemon that has been bottled and preserved in salt for approx 3 months at least)
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
5 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 1/2 empty tomato tins of water
3 teaspoons of chicken stock powder
8 small salad potatoes cut in half

In your large pot brown your chicken well. Ensure good colour and no free flowing blood when poked with a skewer.
Add onions and garlic and cook until they are soft.
Add tomatoes, tomato paste, stock, water, herbs and preserved lemon and keep stirring regularly for 30 mins to prevent burning. Add mushrooms, olives and potatoes. Cook for 20 mins add the rest of the ingredients and cook stirring all the time to prevent the bottom burning.
Keep simmering until chicken is almost falling of the bone and potatoes are done. The potatoes will counteract the quite salty stock flavour so keep tasting all the way through and adjust at the end of cooking.
Serve in a bowl or on a plate with a green vegetable such as green beans. OMGYUMBBQASLLOLETC