Nick Nairn's top 100 Chicken Recipes - chicken with penne, pesto and rocket

I bought Nick Nairn's Top 100 Chicken Recipes in 2004, probably not long after it came out - it was on sale ridiculously cheaply in Tesco and I couldn't resist. I have to confess, now, to having always had a bit of a thing about chicken, to the point where people used to ask if I clucked. I know chicken can be boring, dry, samey, but that doesn't quench my ardour. I also know that far too many people are still buying factory-reared poultry, because these mass-produced specimens occupy a far greater space on the supermarket shelves than their luckier free-range or organic cousins. I could go into a rant, but I won't, because it's all been said before. Anyway, back to Nick Nairn's book, which sounds horribly gimmicky (it isn't) and which also sounds like the sort of book you regret buying 10 minutes after you bought it. I guess it might be, if you aren't the sort of person who is on a permanent quest to try out new ways of cooking chicken. Needless to say, I am. I've only tried a handful of dishes from this book, but all of these I have ended up cooking again and again, ritualistically. There's a chicken lasagne made from leftover roast chicken which is delightfully simple and very tasty - great Monday night fare - and a chicken bolognese which is a lighter version of its beefy predecessor, and a chicken satay kebab dish with a peanut sauce so moreish it should come with a health warning. And finally there is chicken with penne, pesto and rocket, which is a lovely, light, spring-like dinner, again made with leftover roast chicken, and a favourite of ours.

I won't bother to copy the recipe because it is so simple. Cook penne until al dente, drain, and return to pan with the pieces of cooked chicken and a little cooking water, put on the lid, and leave to steam for a couple of minutes on a very low heat. Toss the pasta and chicken mixture with pesto and then add rocket and some grated Parmesan; let the rocket wilt and serve drenched with plenty more Parmesan.


I should add that Nick includes a recipe for pesto but we just use our standard homemade pesto recipe, which Simon or I make in bulk and then we freeze in ice cube trays for handy portions. I always feel erroneously domestic goddessy when I decant food into ice cube trays... even when I then forget, months later, whether I have frozen green pesto or Thai green curry paste (I have been known to defrost the wrong paste). Anyway, both are immeasurably nicer when homemade than when shopbought and neither is particularly taxing; furthermore they both work magically with chicken. Which just gives me more excuses to cluck.