How To Entertain This Month, With Alexandra Dudley

/ 12 August 2025

How To Entertain This Month, With Alexandra Dudley

Alexandra Dudley is a food columnist, cookbook author and host of the Come For Supper podcast. In this instalment of her monthly column, she shares a summer-ready dinner party menu that makes the most of in-season fruit – as well as her favourite new entertaining extras.

Alexandra Dudley

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I love entertaining in August. Summer is in full swing and even when it’s really hot, it feels like a cool glass of rosé can fix most things. This month’s menu features an elevated one-tray chicken with lemon that roasts until jammy before becoming the base of a herby dressing to toss through the potatoes. Then there’s a speedy side of crunchy green beans and pea shoots tossed in a mustardy dressing and a proper party pudding to finish – meringues piled high with raspberries and cream.

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Crispy Chicken Legs With Lemon Herb Potatoes

This is a simple one-tray dish that’s full of flavour. The lemon roasts with the chicken and potatoes before acting as the base of a punchy dressing for the herby potatoes. Cooking the potatoes this way gives them another dose of texture. The whole thing is piled onto one platter for everyone to help themselves.

Serves

Ingredients

750g of potatoes

4 chicken legs

Olive oil

Sea salt

1 lemon, quartered

1 garlic clove

25g of chives, finely chopped

25g of basil, finely chopped

Method

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 200°C Fan.

Step 2

Boil the potatoes for 15-20 minute until you can pierce them with a knife. Drain and allow to steam dry.

Step 3

Pour the potatoes onto a tray and rub in oil and sea salt with your hands. Then using the base of a glass gently smash the potatoes, do not worry if they break as you will be breaking them up further later on anyway.

Step 4

Dot the quartered lemon evenly on the tray. Rub the chicken legs evenly all over with olive oil and sea salt. Nestle within the potatoes. Drizzle everything with olive oil once more and season the skin of the chicken with more sea salt.

Step 5

Cook for 40 minutes until the chicken skin is golden crisp and the potatoes have begun to char in places.

Step 6

Once the chicken has cooked transfer it to a plate to rest. Remove the lemon from the tray. Squeeze in the juice from just two pieces of the lemon, finely grate in the garlic, add a good pinch of salt and a generous glug of olive oil, whisk with a fork to combine. Add the potatoes and herbs and toss. Taste to season adding more lemon if necessary.

Step 7

Pile the potatoes onto a platter with the chicken and any leftover roasted lemon wedges if you like.

Green Bean & Peashoot Salad

Serves

Ingredients

200g of green beans

80g of fresh pea shoots

20g of grana padano or Parmesan

4 tbsp olive oil

Juice of ½ lemon

1 heaped tsp of Dijon mustard

Method

Step 1

Blanch the beans for two minutes, refresh in cold water and drain again.

Step 2

Wash and drain the pea shoots.

Step 3

Combine the dressing in a large bowl and toss in the green beans and salad. Transfer to a serving dish and finish with shavings of grana padano or parmesan.

Meringues With Raspberry Cream

These meringues look best piled up. I tend to use frozen raspberries for the coulis as they break down faster and it’s more cost effective – then I save my fresh ones to garnish.

Serves

4-6

Ingredients

3 large egg whites

170g of caster sugar

50g of fresh raspberries to garnish

For the raspberry cream:

150g of raspberries, fresh or frozen

150ml of double cream

Method

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 100°C Fan and line two baking trays with baking parchment or silicone baking mat.

Step 2

Place the egg whites into a clean bowl. Using an electric whisk beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the sugar a spoonful at a time, whisking as you do until you reach stiff peaks.

Step 3

Spoon heaped tablespoons onto the prepared tray (you should have around 12 meringues) and bake for two hours. Switch off the oven and allow the meringues to cool within.

Step 4

For the coulis heat the raspberries in a saucepan over a gentle heat till they collapse (add a splash of water if using fresh) then run through a sieve discarding the seeds and chilling the coulis until ready to serve.

Step 5

Whisk the double cream until loose peaks form then fold through a tablespoon of the raspberry coulis.

Step 6

Arrange the meringues into a tower holding them together with the cream, spoon over the remaining coulis and finish with fresh raspberries.