roast chicken and salad

After a long weekend spent either on the Isle of Wight running grandparents into the ground and surfing, or hungover after another drunken parent's pot luck, followed by Sean and Suzie's wedding of the year, we're all back in the SW14 hood for sunday dinner en familie.

As it's so clement, and with headaches lurking behind the eyes of adults, we settle on a relaxed roast chicken salad, sat in the late-afternoon sun. What could be better, and I love everything about this meal, the chicken, the rocket and avocado salad (with pumpkin seeds), yellow cherry tomatoes and a baguette, all of which are key ingredients for a cracking sandwich. Although not if your wife cuts the bread crostini-style:

Luckily enough I'm not the only one who like a good roast chicken, although we're still working on the rocket...

Wine Time
Roast chicken is an amazing beast in wine terms, as it can happily snuggle up to a huge variety of flavours, mainly because it lacks oompf itself. With a simple roast like this one, you could easily go with anything from a buttery Chardonnay, to a minerally Gavi or a zippy Sauv, taking pretty much all compass point in between. We decided (mainly because it was on offer) to chill a bottle of Viognier brimming with peach note and mouth-watering acidity, and it was really very tasty. The second bottle tasted even better, which I think is the mark of a good wine.