Rick Stein’s Rotisserie-style Chicken

Before the butcher in Padstow became a fudge shop (there’s still a fish shop – mine!), Norman the butcher used to sell chickens cooked in a rotisserie and very generously he used to give me the cold fat and chicken juice that dripped down into the trough under the roasting chickens. I can honestly say I’ve never tasted a better glace de viande and I used it to enliven many a sauce, even fish-based ones. In France, particularly in Provence, they craftily put sliced potatoes underneath a roasting chicken, which produces an unforgettable sort of pommes boulangère. Sometimes they season it just with salt and pepper, sometimes they add spices and also onions, garlic and red peppers. Whichever way, this is simply chicken, slow-roasted in the oven with the vegetables underneath.