This was an experiment which arose out of a comment my son made about how the flesh of chicken which had been slow cooked submerged in liquid was rather unattractively soft even though it was very tasty. So I thought I would try to achieve the moist and juicy virtues of the submerged chicken with the drier, more concentrated texture and flavour of a roast chicken. I thought that it worked rather well.
In fact, it worked rather well for the corn as well as the exposed side became quite crunchy while the submerged side was soft as normal. I would be  interested to know what anyone thinks.

Serves 4

2 small onions, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 stick celery, finely chopped
6 open mushrooms, finely chopped
1 heaped tsp black peppercorns
1 large sprig fresh or 1 tsp dried thyme
1 medium size chicken to serve 4
300ml/10 floz dry white wine
approx 600ml/20floz gluten and wheat-free stock
2 corn on the cob, cut in half
2 rashers of fat back bacon

Heat the oven to 160C/300F/Gas mark 3.
Put the onions, garlic, celery, mushrooms, peppercorns and thyme into an ovenproof casserole which will hold the chicken with a reasonable amount of space to spare.
Sit the chicken on top and tuck the corn cobs down the side of the chicken.
Pour the wine round the chicken and then pour enough of the stock to come 2/3 of the way up the sides of the chicken. The corn should be floating in the stock.
Lay the bacon over the breast of the chicken and lay a piece of foil over the top.
Bake for 2 hours, turning the corn cobs in the stock once or twice.
Remove the foil and return to the oven to allow the breast and bacon to crisp up. Cook for another 30 minutes.
Adjust the seasoning of the juice to taste if they need it then serve the chicken with some of the the juices and cooking vegetables, baked potatoes, sweet potatoes or rice and a green vegetable.

Use the remaining cooking juices and vegetables, the carcass of the chicken and some extra water to make earth-shatteringly delicious stock, from which you can then make even more earth-shatteringly delicious soup...

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