New potatoes always make me greedy for more but I love leftovers. Apart from potato salads, I love roasting and frying them. The latter is particularly good with bacon, specially smoked bacon or pancetta, with finely chopped spring onions melted in right at the end. If you have flat leaf parsley to hand and a few mint leaves, this is a terrific last minute addition.
Serves 4
Prep: 30 min
Cook: 45 min
750g small new potatoes
3 tbsp olive oil
200g smoked bacon lardons
4-8 chicken thighs
few sprigs flat leaf parsley
10 flourishing mint leaves
1-2 lemons
few sprigs rosemary
Boil the kettle. Heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. Scrub or scrape then rinse the potatoes and boil in salted water from the kettle. Drain, cool slightly then whip the skins off. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a spacious, frying/sauté pan, stir in the lardons and cook for 5 minutes until the fat begins to run. Add the potatoes, stirring to cover in fat. Cook over a medium-low heat, leaving the potatoes for several minutes to form a crust, before turning, continuing thus until done to your liking. I allow at least 30 minutes so they are very crusty but still buttery inside, so adjust the heat to slightly lower if necessary. Meanwhile, use remaining olive oil to smear the chicken. Cut thick slices of lemon. Rest a piece of chicken, skin-side uppermost, over a slice of lemon and sprig rosemary. Roast for 30-40 minutes until the chicken skin is crisp, the meat cooked through (clear juices when pierced). Serve chicken alongside potatoes with seasonal greens.