One chicken, endless meals
5 + really delicious seasonal recipes for the week, ingredient lists, prep notes & more!
I love restaurants. I love everything about them - the hum, the heat, the barely contained chaos. I especially enjoy and appreciate open kitchens, where chefs move with the grace of ballet dancers and the synchronized precision of an F1 pit crew. The hiss of oil on steel, the clatter of plates, the barked “Behind!” or “Oui!” punctuate the air, the soundtrack evidence of the collective effort required to achieve that perfect plate.
As a diner, I love the ritual of the reservation; it’s an opportunity to shed clothes dusted with flour and scented with garlic, in favor of something clean, pretty and preferably without splatter marks. Stepping out of my kitchen and into someone else’s feels like a small act of surrender and trust. Sometimes I show up armed with intel: chef interviews, saved social media posts, tips on which ‘life-changing’ dish to order from friends. Other times, I walk in blind ready to enjoy the unexpected (which is always the most enjoyable way).
Unfortunately, I haven’t been out much recently. Having just returned to San Diego from the UK, jet lag and pressing deadlines as well as an upcoming work trip have meant that my ever-growing to-do list has meant that I haven’t had the time to get out much. So, instead, I decided to create a restaurant vibe at home.
Here’s the thing - cooking is my job, which means I need a little distance between the labor of making a meal and the pleasure of eating it. That’s what restaurants offer: novelty, surprise, a break in the pattern. At home, the trick to keeping the pleasure and losing the toil is to narrow the gap between effort and reward. This week’s menu does exactly that.
With this week’s menu, I’d love to invite you to join A Good Table Chat — a considered space for paid subscribers. Think of it as our own supportive cook club, where we trade stories about what we’re making, share photos of dinner and market hauls, talk through recipes, and trade creative cooking tips.
What we’re building here feels wonderful. I’m so glad you’re part of it. Right, let’s cook.
While planning this newsletter, I asked myself: What am I really craving? What would I order if I were out right now? I picture myself scanning the specials board as if it’s a map to buried treasure. And if there’s chicken? Count me in. Poached, roasted, fried, charred, collapsing into its own juices— I’ll take it in any form.
Chicken is the blank canvas. The test. A chef’s quiet autobiography. How you treat a bird tells me everything I need to know. That - and the house salad. You can learn a lot about a place by how it dresses a leaf.
Today’s menu starts with one poached chicken and ends with four satisfying seasonal meals. I’m cooking for two, but these meals would easily stretch to three or four, especially if you’ve also got little ones at the table. There’s a limited amount of prep on a Sunday, but after that? Each night is just minutes from something deeply comforting. No slog. No stress. Budget-friendly and simply really good seasonal food, fast.
On Sunday afternoon (or Monday, depending on when your weekend is - here’s looking at you hospitality folk) prep as many elements as you can. Start by putting on some jazz and leaning into your inner homebody. Not only is this a comforting ritual, but it’s also a wonderful chance to involve whoever is around. Home cooking doesn’t have to be stressful, especially when you have a plan and a glass of good wine in hand.
For each main meal, I usually include an easy-to-cook vegetable, such as tender stem broccoli or a lovely seasonal salad with a simple vinaigrette.
You don’t need to follow my plan exactly. In fact, I encourage you to adapt it to fit your schedule and preferences. This plan gives you a great foundation to get creative throughout the week without all the tiresome decision-making and faff.
If it feels like too much, just select a few recipes or elements that excite you. But if you make only one thing, let it be the poached chicken — this is a wonderful foundational recipe to make a whole heap of other delicious meals such as soups, sandwiches and pies.
Let the grocery shopping begin! Several of the ingredients below appear in more than one recipe. If you're planning to cook the full menu, you can prep everything in one go - the whole process should take no more than a couple of hours. If you’re selecting just a few dishes, simply cross-reference the recipes with the ingredient and ingredient prep lists. Printing it out and highlighting what you need will make things easier.
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