Roast Chicken with Orange and Black Pepper Baste

I was recently sent a lovely Seasonal Box from Knorr full of goodies for the perfect Christmas dinner including new Knorr Gravy pots to create tasty gravy without any fuss.

  The box came with a challenge which was to either cook Marco Pierre White's Christmas Roast Turkey with Orange and Smoky Bacon Baste recipe, or come up with something else.  Since there are only two of us and it's so near to the big day, I didn't cook the Turkey.  I've popped it into the freezer and it will get cooked on Christmas day.
The orange and black pepper butter can of course be used to baste a turkey instead of chicken.

One Pot Cooking with Marco Pierre White and Knorr

Last week I was very kindly invited along with around 15 other people including food bloggers and food journalists and Knorr representatives to a 'One Pot Cooking' Masterclass by Marco Pierre White.
Marco showed us how a Knorr stock pot doesn't have to be diluted with water, just use your imagination.....

Depending of course on what you're cooking, you can use fresh carrot, apple, or prune juice either on their own or in a combination with wine or cider.
Knorr stock pots are quite marvelous things!  If you've never tried them before you really should give them a go.  There's no need to faff about making your own stock ever again as they really do taste like 'proper' stock.
In just a couple of minutes you have freshly made stock to use in any recipe requiring stock. 

Marco first made Pumpkin Soup which was delicious.

   Instead of water he used freshly made carrot juice to dilute the vegetable Knorr stock pots.  He pointed out that shop brought carrot juice isn't the same due to the antioxidants they add which alter the flavour.....So now I need a juicer!

   After we'd all eaten the soup we went back into the kitchen to watch Marco make a lovely Asparagus Risotto:

The risotto was totally yummy and we all loved his idea of adding the peelings of the asparagus to the pan with the Knorr stock pot as it was brought to heat to add even more flavour.

 He then passed it through a sieve to remove the unwanted peelings and then used the stock in the usual manner.  It may not sound too amazing but it really makes a difference to the stock pot adding another depth of flavour.

Marco explained how by adding flavours in layers as you cook you a much more professional, tastier dish will be the end result.
Marco added the precooked asparagus tips at the very end of cooking, resulting in a greener fresher taste and look. 

    Now, as if we hadn't all had enough to eat, we once again returned to the kitchen to watch Marco make a really easy creamy Roast Chicken Casserole!

Of course using roast chicken will always result in a much more tasty casserole.  You can of course use the same recipe but make it into a pie for a change.  Two recipes in one!

As he made the recipe he wrote it down for us although you can find the recipe for this and many more over at Knorr.

The chicken casserole was made in no time at all and now it was time for us to try it.....

 Well I didn't meet anyone that found any fault with it - total yum on a plate!

As Marco said, don't be worried about experimenting in the kitchen and remember you don't have to follow any recipe to the last detail.
Don't be afraid to try new things.  Cooking should be fun!

  A massive thank you to Jen and Neil for inviting me along to my second Masterclass with Marco Pierre White and Knorr - I loved every minute of it and picked up lots of tips too.

I'll leave you with a few more photos of the day - Click on Continue Reading to view them:

Masterclass with Marco Pierre White and Knorr

Like myself, have you ever wondered, does 3 Michelin star chef Marco Pierre White really use Knorr stock cubes?  Well I can tell you he does!  

After very kindly being invited to 'Best of British' Masterclass with Marco in his restaurant 'Marco' in London, I got to see just how he uses Knorr stock cubes.

He makes a seasoning paste from them - what a marvelous idea!

So easy too!  He just crumbles a Knorr stock cube into a bowl and adds a little olive oil, then mixes well to form a paste.  

To make a paste for steak Marco mixed a Knorr stock cube with a little olive oil and added a some finely chopped rosemary.  He smeared this over each steak before cooking on a grill pan.

The rib-eye steak he cooked tasted so, so good!

Marco then made a paste for chicken but added grated lemon zest to the paste instead of rosemary.  

Of course, as he said, you can add whatever you fancy.  For example, if you like cayenne pepper, add that instead of the lemon zest.

When the chicken was cooked it was amazing - chicken breast - skin on. Perfectly crispy skin, despite him insisting the way to make the skin crispy on either chicken or duck, was by putting it into a COLD pan!

Neither the other blogger's or I had ever heard of such a thing.  But in front of our eyes he did it.  Totally crispy and so very tasty from the Knorr seasoning he'd put on it before cooking.  

Marco put the chicken into a COLD pan - skin side down and let it heat up slowly.  The fat starts to cook, rendering it down.  But the chicken doesn't cook hardly at all at this point - keeping it lovely and moist.  Then the heat is turned up before turning the chicken over.  He then put the pan into the oven for about 5 minutes to finish off the cooking.  

Of course a quick check is needed to make sure the chicken is cooked though and if not, just return to the stove top to continue cooking.  A couple of minutes will do the job nicely.  

 Just a squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil before serving and the end result was oh so good!

 Marco then went on to cook tuna - again using a Knorr stock cube as a  seasoning.  He cooked two tuna steaks, one with salt and one with a Knorr paste.  

We all agreed the tuna seasoned with Knorr tasted far better.   

I've since cooked his tuna recipe myself and although my pictures are in no way as good as this professional one - I'll share the recipe with you in post in the very near future.

Doesn't that dressing look amazing?!

 As you can see below, everyone of us had a great time and found Marco to be such a lovely person.  

He really was genuinely interested in us all, and answered our questions in great detail.  Nothing seemed to be too much trouble for him, or his staff at his restaurant.  

The kind people from Knorr were very friendly and welcoming too.   

 The day was filmed too for the Knorr website.  The picture below was taken by myself and shows the camera crew:

You can see a fantastic selection of Marco's Masterclasses and recipes using Knorr over at the Knorr website.

We all had a lovely dinner after wards in Marco's restaurant.  I had steak which was cooked to absolute perfection.  Indeed the best steak I think I've ever had.

Marco kindly signed our 'Knorr' aprons for us:

 

 Next month on the Knorr website, Marco will be cooking 'Curried Chicken with Watercress' and as I've already been given the recipe, I've already cooked it.
It was delicious!  More about that in the next post.....

 For now, here's a taster (not literally)....just a picture sorry!

Picture courtesy of Knorr  - you didn't really think this was one of 'my' pictures did you?!! 

I'd like to say a massive thank you to Knorr, Marco Pierre White, Jen, Alastair and Neil for such a fantastic day.
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