A buttery chicken dinner that’s so simple to make

A recipe for an easy to make and delicious chicken dish is great to have and this one is a winner. It can be served alongside so many different things, but avoid roast potatoes or any vegetables cooked in oil as there is enough fat in the sauce. Sometimes a crusty baguette for mopping up all the buttery sauce is enough. I like to serve this with a simple green salad, rice, a herb laden tabbouleh or fluffy mashed potatoes. Folding kale, spinach or cabbage and spring onions through the mash makes it even nicer. I really love colcannon and find it so versatile, to serve with stews and tomato based sauces, or Sunday roasts. Kale is divine on its own and such a nutrient-rich vegetable. Its wonderful texture and green flavour is great rippled through mash alongside this buttery dish.

This chicken is amazing with pasta too. Cook some fresh egg tagliatelle till al dente and reserve a little of the salted cooking water. Shred the buttered chicken, then fold it into the tagliatelle along with the buttery sauce, a squeeze of lemon juice, black pepper and plenty of freshly chopped parsley. It’s so good.

A restaurant in Florence called Trattoria Sostanza is famous for this chicken. It takes an amazing chicken dish to be able to outshine the legendary Bistecca alla Fiorentina, the massive flame-grilled T-bone steak. I ate it several times there and tried to figure out what exactly made the chicken taste so amazing. The answer is simply: lots of butter. I like to squeeze over some lemon juice just before eating it, as the fresh zestiness really cuts through the butter. This isn’t an everyday dish but it’s a real winner and great for a special occasion, such as a Friday night after a long week. It’s quick and easy to make, which is a real bonus.

One of the main reasons I don’t usually cook with chicken breasts is that they can be rather bland and flavourless. There’s so much more to a chicken. The nicest parts are always the legs and brown meat. The breasts are often dry and need a sauce or stuffing to introduce a more palatable texture and taste. I would imagine this recipe would also work well with turkey, another bird infamous for becoming dry during cooking. It benefits from basting, and this buttery method of cooking would be perfect. Adding a few whole cloves of garlic and a few sprigs of thyme or rosemary to the dish prior to roasting will add further flavour and complexity to this simple recipe.