Trying to find a variation for dinner involving white meat, is challenging. There is turkey, chicken and duck in most supermarkets. We choose organic and free range as much as possible, the cheap chicken has no flavour and also seems to shrink a lot during cooking, which is probably due to a high water content.
We have discovered that guinea fowl is a great new option and reasonably priced and tastes amazing.
Cooking with minimal fuss and speed can be a challenge in the evenings, I love it when a meal can be popped in the oven and just needs occasional monitoring and turning. A guinea fowl can take 90 minutes to roast normally, but if spatchcocked it can roast in 60 minutes.
Spatchcocking the guinea fowl is really easy if you have some strong kitchen scissors. It involves removing the backbone from the bird, just turn over the bird so that the breast is facing down, then using the kitchen scissors, cut through one side of the backbone, then repeat the other side, turn over the bird and open out the legs and push down on the breast, this will flatten the bird.
Ingredients
1 guinea fowl
1 sachet of Nando’s Peri Peri coat and cook https://www.nandos.co.uk/food/medium-coat-cook-sauce
Method
Spatchcock the guinea fowl, then put the bird in a small roasting pan, cover with the marinade and rub into both sides of the bird. If you have the time, cover with foil and leave for 15 minutes to marinade. Pop on the middle shelf in a preheated oven Gas 5 180C for 60 minutes. Remove the foil after 30 minutes and baste with the juices in the pan.
Check that the guinea fowl is cooked, by piercing thickest part of the leg and checking that the juices run clear.
Serve with Jacket potatoes (these can be popped into the same oven when the guinea fowl is put in the cook).
I also served with Roasted Red Peppers and fennel (Delia’s recipe) this was cooked on the top shelf of oven. https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/books/delias-happy-christmas/roasted-red-peppers-stuffed-with-fennel
