Chicken tonight.

Broad beans, asparagus, fennel and lemon? Chicken springs to mind.

The broad beans at the moment are outrageously good. So is the asparagus. And the fennel. So it’s roast chicken tonight, with all the above, bathed in lemony olive oil.

First, slice your fennel, and leave it to pickle lightly in lemon juice and sea salt. Chuck any left-over chunks and stalks of fennel and slices of lemon into the roasting tray with the chicken, and roast until golden.

Cook the broad beans and asparagus very quickly in boiling salted water, then drain and toss into the fennel with olive oil and more lemon.

The final touch – add the ‘salad’ to the chicken and warm it through in the oven for 5 minutes as you get the plates and pour the wine.

There’s a recipe below, but do you even need it? Didn’t I just give it to you?

ROAST CHICKEN WITH FENNEL, ASPARAGUS AND BROAD BEANS

Serves 4

• 1 big fat fennel, or two medium

• 2 lemons for squeezing and slicing

• 8 top quality chicken thighs, skin-on

• Extra virgin olive oil for splashing around

• 2 bunches asparagus

• 1 cup broad beans (from around 700g of pods)

Heat the oven to 220C.

Squeeze 2 tbsp lemon juice into a bowl and add sea salt.

Finely slice the fennel (cut in half first if large), and add to the bowl, tossing.

Roughly chop remaining fennel, even the stalks, and arrange on a baking tray lined with baking paper (save the fennel fronds for serving).

Add the chicken and a few thick slices of lemon to the tray, scatter with sea salt, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 30 minutes until golden.

Reduce the temperature to 200C and bake for a further 15 minutes.

Cook the broad beans and asparagus in simmering salted water for 3 minutes, then drain.

Toss the broad beans and asparagus with the lemony fennel, add extra lemon juice and a good slug of olive oil, taste for seasoning.

Pile the salad onto plates and arrange chicken and roasted fennel on top, along with the roasted lemons, which will leak lemony juices over the plate.

OR (because we love a Plan B):  Pile the salad into the roasting pan and leave in the oven for a couple of minutes to warm through while you get your act together, then pile everything onto warm plates.

Strew with fennel fronds and serve.

Tip:  Yes, you can roast the asparagus instead, just toss in olive oil and throw it over the chicken for the last 15 minutes.

Note: You can double-peel a few broad beans (maybe just the larger ones) if you like, or you can think of double-peeled broad beans as gastronomically sanctioned waste.

A note on the chicken: Skin-on chicken thighs work best here; or marylands (thigh and drumstick attached), or spatchcocks, halved along the breastbone. If you can only find skinless chicken thighs (so sad), consider wrapping each one is a slice of prosciutto to reverse-engineer some crispness. If you’re as hooked on cornfed chooks as I am, Game Farm are located in Strathfield, Sydney, but are available at Harris Farm Markets and interstate. If you ask them nicely, they might be able to tell you your nearest stockist (02) 9653 4600. 

If there are just two of you; here’s the plan: Buy a whole cornfed chicken, get it home, wipe clean, and cut off the two marylands, where the thigh joins the body, and use for this recipe. Then cut off the two breasts, bash them flat and freeze them for a future schnitzel. Cut off the wings and roast alongside the marylands, because they’re the best parts. Make a simple chicken stock with the carcass and whatever vegetables are lurking in the crisper, and once it smells wonderful, cool, strain and freeze. No running around for different cuts, and you’re three meals ahead.

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Thanks for dropping by! And as always, thanks for your comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Terry for not actually flapping his arms at the headline.

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I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to be recognised in Australia’s Constitution.