Bird of paradise: Skye Gyngell reveals her favourite chicken dishes

Like many people, most of my childhood memories are bound up with food. Mangoes and cherries mean long, hot summer days. Roast lamb followed by pavlova covered in cream and laden with sour passionfruit equals my grandmother's weatherboard house on Sunday evenings. I loved those Sunday evenings, and not just because we never ate dessert at home.

But perhaps my most overriding food memory is of my mother's roast chicken. Affectionately known Down Under as "roast chook", it has a place at just about every table in Australia. Growing up, we ate it once a week, as my children do now, and always served in exactly the same way - accompanied by mashed potatoes, roast pumpkin and red onions.

This pot-roasted dish is almost the same as a traditional roast. It came about after I'd prepared everything needed to make the same roast chicken my mother used to make, only to find that my oven had broken. So I improvised and threw the whole lot in a pot, adding a couple of jars of tomatoes and some fresh sage I found in the back of the fridge. I served it just as we did when I was a child, and I think it might have almost tasted better.

Sadly, I serve chicken less often at Petersham. Not because I don't like the idea of it but because I find it very hard to find really good chicken in this country. It bemuses me how the French manage to get their poultry so right and we can't.

Small birds are the key. Corn-fed chicken may sound tempting, but more often than not it is simply pumped up on pellets and has spent its life tightly caged. You need to look for poultry that has been free to roam on grass runs, foraging for worms and crushed egg shells for grit. Their diet should be free of preservatives and hormones, and they should be small yet plump. Absolutely delicious.

Skye Gyngell is head chef at Petersham Nurseries, Church Lane, Richmond, Surrey (tel: 020 8605 3627). Her book 'A Year in my Kitchen' is currently the Guild of Food Writers' Cookery Book of the Year

Pot-roasted chicken with fresh sage and butternut squash

This simple one-pot meal is one of my favourites. It is incredibly quick to prepare and tastes delicious. It is something I cook often at home for my children, who also love it. You will need a casserole dish with a snug-fitting lid.

Serves 4

1 free-range organic chicken
1 lemon, halved
1 small bunch of sage
3 fresh bay leaves
2tbsp mild extra-virgin olive oil
2 red onions, peeled and quartered
5 cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole
1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped into rough chunks
2 tins of good-quality chopped tomatoes
2tbsp crème fraîche
Sea-salt and freshly ground black pepper

Start by generously seasoning the chicken all over. Insert the lemon, half of the sage and one of the bay leaves into it (having first removed the little pillows of fat found just inside the cavity).

Place the casserole dish on a medium heat and pour in the olive oil. When it's hot and slightly smoking, put the chicken in and brown lightly all over. This will take a little bit of time. Turn the chicken every now and then to make sure it goes an even, golden brown all over. Once brown, remove it from the pan and set aside.

Pour off the excess oil, add the onions, season with a pinch of salt and cook until tender. This should take about 5 minutes. Next add the garlic and the rest of the sage and bay leaves. Cook for a further 5 minutes, then add the squash.

Add the tomatoes and stir once or twice, then return the chicken to the pan, so that it nestles among the vegetables. Put the lid on, turn down the heat to medium-low and cook for about 45 minutes. The breasts do not need to be completely submerged in the liquid; they will happily steam cook - and remain all the more tender for it.

Once the chicken is cooked, add the crème fraîche and adjust the seasoning. It should be slightly sweet, sagey and very comforting in flavour. At home we eat this dish with farro or creamy mashed potato, and a simple green salad dressed with olive oil and lemon.

Chicken sandwich

Ever since I was a little girl I have enjoyed making sandwiches, and sometimes I can think of nothing nicer - they usually hit the spot exactly. Three rules always apply: sandwiches need to be well-seasoned and they need to contain something wet - mayonnaise is perfect - and something crunchy, to balance the doughiness of the bread. This is a great way to use up leftover chicken, and poached chicken is especially good as it's less dry than a roasted bird.

Serves 4

2 cloves of garlic
1tsp mustard powder
The juice of half a lemon
2 anchovies
2 organic, free-range egg yolks
35g/1 1/2 oz grated Parmesan cheese
80ml/3fl oz extra-virgin olive oil
Sea-salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 ripe tomato
Enough bread for 4 (l like sourdough, lightly toasted and brushed with olive oil)
4 or 5 basil leaves
1 whole poached chicken, sliced
A handful of salad leaves

To make the dressing, blend the garlic, mustard powder, lemon juice, anchovies, egg yolks and Parmesan. Very slowly pour the oil in through the top of the blender as you would do when making a mayonnaise. Season with pepper and, cautiously, with salt. Set aside.

Slice the tomato and lay on top of the toasted bread. Lay the basil leaves on top, followed by the chicken. Spoon over the dressing and finish with a couple of salad leaves. A big grating of lots of freshly ground pepper is imperative.

Eat while the bread is still warm.

Braised chicken with green figs

The first of the season's figs are beginning to trickle in from Italy. I love cooking with figs and use them in everything from salads to ice creams, as well as for braising, as in this dish. When choosing them, look for fruit that feels heavy for its size. The slightly misshapen, wrinkly ones can be the most delicious of all. Fruit that looks perfect often tastes disappointing.

Serves 4

1 free-range chicken, divided into 6 pieces - you can ask your butcher to do this
Sea-salt and freshly ground black pepper
2tbsp mild, extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, peeled and finely sliced
100ml/3 1/2fl oz chicken stock
80ml/3fl oz white wine
3 or 4 sprigs of thyme
3 fresh bay leaves
1tbsp chestnut honey
2tbsp red-wine vinegar
8-10 green figs

Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat and add the chicken pieces skin-side down. The oil should sizzle when you add the chicken (if it pops explosively it is too hot). Cook until the skin is evenly golden-brown all over. This will take about 10 minutes. Pour off the fat.

Add the onion, nestling the slices between the pieces of chicken. Now add the stock, wine, thyme and bay leaves.

Turn up the heat and bring to a simmer, add a few grindings of black pepper and then place, uncovered, into the oven. Cook until the meat is tender, which should take about 40 minutes. The exposed skin should be crispy and golden and the flesh tender.

Remove from the oven and skim any fat from the braising liquid. Remove the chicken and leave to rest in a warm place while you finish off the sauce.

Place the pan with the sauce in over a medium heat, add the honey and vinegar and swirl around while you reduce the liquid to a syrupy consistency. Cut the figs in half and add to the pan, turning them in order to coat them in the glossy amber syrup, and cook for only a couple of minutes - you don't want them to break up. Serve the sour, sweet, vibrant sauce with the chicken, and accompany with a simple green salad.

Poached chicken salad with candlenuts and namjim

Namjim is a staple sauce found in Thai cooking. Its hot, sour, salty, sweet flavour is delicious. It is, however, important to balance the flavours so that no one taste dominates the others.

I really love this crunchy salad, which is something that I often make for myself at home. I like to eat it alongside simple steamed rice which provides a gorgeous contrast.

Serves 4

For the namjim
1 bunch of coriander
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
A pinch of salt
2 green birds eye chillies, chopped
2tbsp palm sugar
2tbsp fish sauce
3tbsp lime juice
2 red shallots, peeled and finely chopped
1 small organic free-range chicken
1 small knob of ginger
1 bunch of coriander
3 kaffir lime leaves

For the salad

2 small carrots
2 small cucumbers (or half a large one)
8-10 candlenuts or cashew nuts
A handful of coriander leaves
10 or 12 basil leaves

To make the namjim, pound the coriander stalks (the roots and stalks of coriander are used in cooking; the leaves are reserved for garnishes and salads), with the garlic and salt in a pestle and mortar until well crushed. Add the chillies and continue to pound.

Mix in the sugar, fish sauce and lime juice, and then the chopped shallots. Set aside.

Wash and pat dry the chicken, then place it in a large pot. Add the ginger, coriander and lime leaves, and cover with cold water. Place over a medium heat, bring to the boil then turn to a simmer - you want the chicken to cook gently. Poach for 40 minutes.

Take the pot off the heat and allow it to cool for a while, before removing the chicken from the cooking broth. Poaching is a lovely way to cook chicken that's to be served at room temperature - it remains deliciously soft and moist.

For the salad, peel the carrots and cut into fine matchsticks. Slice the cucumbers in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon. Cut into fine matchsticks. Gently roast the nuts in the oven until golden brown. Remove and allow to cool, then chop roughly.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the flesh from the bones and shred it with your fingers. Place in a bowl, alongside the carrots, cucumber, coriander, basil and toasted nuts. Dress with the namjim and serve immediately.

The Forager by Wendy Fogarty

Petersham's food sourcer reveals the best suppliers of free-range chicken...

Rhug Estate, Corwen, Denbighshire - organically farm the Sasso breed (tel: 01490 413 000; www.rhug.co.uk).

Laverstoke Park, Overton, Hampshire - a bio-dynamic farm that focuses on rearing traditional breeds (tel: 01256 771 571; www.laverstokepark.co.uk).

Sheepdrove Farm, Lambourn, Berkshire - delicious organically-reared chickens roam freely on clover-enriched meadows, and are available online at www.sheepdrove.com.

Clayton Organic Farm, Mayfield, East Sussex - rears a delicious organic hybrid table bird (tel: 01435 874 852; www.henonthegate.com).

Clare's Organics - sell a breed of slow-growth Sasso birds that are lovely eating, at farmers' markets in Notting Hill and Pimlico, London (tel: 07768 007 488; www.lfm.org.uk).

Tom's Farm - sells excellent Sassos and Hubbards at farmers' markets in Queen's Park, Primrose Hill and Islington in London (tel: 07932 158 729; www.lfm.org.uk).

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