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Serves 4

 

1 whole chicken

50g/1¾oz butter

6 spring onions, shredded

4 tomatoes, deseeded and chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

2 tbsp sunflower oil

 

For the pancakes

250g/9oz stoneground wholemeal flour

1 large free-range egg

400ml/14fl oz milk

50g/1¾oz butter, melted

2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs

How to Create the Dish

 

Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3.

 

Crown the chicken by removing the legs and wing tips, then cutting away two-thirds of the back. (The discarded backbone can be used for making stock.)

 

Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the spring onions and cook gently without browning. Add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.

 

Add the parsley, cook for two minutes then set aside to cool.

 

From the neck end of the chicken crown, release the skin to form a pocket without piercing it. Put a quarter of the tomato mixture under the skin and then reshape it.

 

Heat a clean pan, brush the chicken legs with oil, then brown them all over.

 

Rub a tablespoon of oil over the chicken crown. Put the crown and the legs on a roasting tray and roast for 35-45 minutes, until the skin is golden-brown and the juices run clear with no sign of pink when the meat is pierced through the thickest part with a skewer. Set aside to cool.

 

Meanwhile make the pancakes. Mix the flour, egg, milk, butter and herbs together to make a batter. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and cook the pancakes. Using a 6cm/2½in metal chef's ring, cut mini pancakes from the large ones.

 

Remove the skin and bone from the chicken legs and shred the leg meat.

 

Heat half the remaining tomato mix with the shredded chicken.

 

Grease the metal rings with oil then layer up the pancakes and the chicken tomato mix, starting with a pancake, in the rings. There should be four layers of pancake and three of chicken.

 

Reheat the pancake stack in the oven until hot through, and heat the remaining tomato mix for the sauce.

 

Take the crown meat off the bone and divide it between four plates. Serve with a hot pancake stack and the remaining sauce alongside.