2 Christmas Meal : Roast Chicken with Grapes

It is just a week and a half away. The big question has always been, "What shall I cook for Christmas?", but what really excites me is the activity of pouring through a ton of recipe books.

It used to be a challenge cooking up a meal for a group of people. I remember the panic, the mad rush and hair-pulling antics. I have my share of festive cooking disasters which I love to reminisce about, like the time I turned up at a pot-bless gathering with deep fried potato balls which had flattened because it was hollow inside. I could have sworn I filled it to the brim!

These days I'm a cool cucumber. I don't know if it's the age or I've just mastered the shortcuts.

One of my favourite Christmas dish is Roast Chicken with Grapes. It's a favourite because I get asked for it every year. THAT, surely is solid proof, of its deliciousness.

Roast chicken with grapes and sweet potatoes

I found the recipe a decade ago in a cooking magazine. There's a whole lot preparation that goes into it but I have adapted it to a more relaxed style of cooking and simplified the recipe...I'll even go as far as to say that I've "over-simplified" it.

For THE Christmas dinner, I usually stuff a whole chicken with grapes and line the sides with carrots and potatoes.

Here, I've used just a few pieces of chicken parts because this is a meal meant for two and I added sweet potatoes because I felt like it.

The recipe, roughly : Mix chicken, seedless grapes, sweet potatoes and onions with a little salt, pepper and softened butter. Sprinkle some dried rosemary over it. Spread on baking tray and bake for about an hour at 180c. I wanted some greens so I added broccoli onto the same tray in the last ten minutes of baking time.

Easy, right?

Broccoli