Ah, one of the best midweek meals (and – hurrah – one that the kids have taken to as well). If you don’t want to make the mustard sauce, just serve some mustard (I prefer English here) on the side. I like it with a sweet-and-sour cucumber salad tossed with dill, or pickled or braised red cabbage. Little waxy potatoes too, please.
Roast jerusalem artichokes and chicken with anchovy, walnut and parsley relish
More messing around with anchovies. Here they arenot disguised – you know you’re eating them – but I am totally hooked onsalty-sweet-savoury combinations. Cooks tend to think anchovies are good withlamb, but they work really well with chicken, too.
Even if you don’t like anchovies you will love this dish. The anchovies don’t add a ‘fishy’ taste at all, instead they deepen the flavours of the cooking juices and make the whole dish more complex. Even my kids – who ‘hate’ anchovies – love this.
8largeskin-on bone-in chicken thighsor a mixture of joints
8banana shallotspeeled
1tbspolive oil
4garlic clovesfinely chopped
really good pinch of chilli flakes
5anchoviesdrained of oil and roughly chopped
3sprigs of rosemary
75ml2½fl oz dry white wine or dry vermouth
finely grated zest and juice of ½ unwaxed lemon
Instructies
Trim the chicken thighs of scraggy bits of fat to make them neat.
Quarter the shallots lengthways.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
Heat the oil in a broad shallow pan which can go on the hob and in the oven (and hold the thighs in a single layer without too much room around them).
Quickly brown the chicken on both sides over a medium-high heat.
You don’t want to cook it through, just get some colour on it.
Remove the thighs and put them on a plate.
Pour off all but 1 tbsp of the fat from the pan.
Add the shallots to the pan and cook for about three minutes to get some colour on these as well, then add three-quarters of the garlic, the chilli and the anchovies.
Reduce the heat right down and cook for another four minutes or so, pressing the anchovies with the back of a wooden spoon to help them ‘melt’ (they just disintegrate).
Add the rosemary, wine and lemon juice and bring to the boil.
Take off the heat.
Lay the chicken thighs on top of the shallots (the chicken should be skin side up), pour any juices that have come out of the chicken into the pan as well and put into the oven for 35–40 minutes, uncovered.
Check that the chicken is cooked through: when you pierce one of the pieces near the bone the juices that run out should be clear, with no trace of pink.
Taste for seasoning.
The chilli and anchovies should provide enough, but just make sure.
Chop the lemon zest and reserved garlic together very finely and sprinkle over the top.
This came about because I like blood oranges somuch. I put them with other ingredients that make me think of Sicily – Marsalaand olives – and so it was born. It can be hard to find dry Marsala (somepeople will tell you it doesn’t exist), but persevere. When blood orangesaren’t in season, use regular oranges.
2smallred onionshalved and cut into crescent moon-shaped slices
2garlic clovesfinely chopped
100ml3½fl oz dry Marsala
juice of 1 blood orangeplus 2 blood oranges
8sprigs of thyme
3tbspgood-quality green olives
a little caster sugar
Instructies
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
Heat the olive oil in a broad, shallow casserole in which the chicken joints can lie in a single layer (I use a cast-iron pan).
Season the chicken and brown it over a medium-high heat on both sides, skin side first.
Be careful not to turn the chicken over before it comes away easily from the base of the pan, otherwise you will tear the skin.
Remove the chicken from the pan and set it aside.
Drain off all but a couple of tbsp of the oil and add the onions.
Cook over a medium-low heat until they begin to soften.
Add the garlic and cook for another two minutes.
Deglaze the pan with the Marsala, stirring round to scrape up all the flavour that’s stuck to the base.
Add the blood orange juice.
Return the chicken – with any juices that have run out of it – to the pan, skin side up.
Season and add six of the sprigs of thyme.
Bring the liquid underneath the chicken to the boil, then take the pan off the heat and put it in the oven for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, cut a slice off the bottom and top of each whole blood orange so they have a flat base on which to sit.
Using a very sharp knife, cut the peel and pith from each orange, working around the fruit and cutting the peel away in broad slices from top to bottom.
Slice the oranges into wheels and flick out any pips you see.
Add the olives to the chicken and lay over the sliced blood oranges.
(The oranges should stay on top, out of the liquid. ) Sprinkle the orange slices with sugar and return the pan to the oven.
Cook for another 20 minutes.
The juices under the chicken should have reduced, the orange slices have turned golden, even caramelized in patches, and the chicken be cooked through.
Add the leaves of the remaining two sprigs of thyme – it just lifts the flavour – carefully spooning some of the juices over them.
This dish seems simple, but I can’t tell you how much I love it. I’d heard about a Turkish relish-cum-salsa made with crushed green olives and chillies and the desire to try it became overwhelming one night. I have no idea whether this is anything like the Turkish relish I was told about and I don’t care; I just bashed everything together, adding and adjusting. When I’d finished I knew I would make this for the rest of my life. It packs a punch, it includes my beloved coriander and is so hot it makes you reach for a beer. I make it a lot to go with lamb as well as chicken.
The chicken and relish are good with rice, of course, but if you’re in the mood for a wrap, well, there’s nothing better. Make sure you get plenty of cucumber and lettuce in the wrap too, though, as that relish needs taming.
good squeeze of lemon juiceplus lemon wedges to serve
Instructies
To marinate the chicken, mix the regular oil, cinnamon, cayenne, cumin, garlic and salt and pepper together to make a marinade.
Make little slits all over the underside of the pieces of chicken with the point of a knife.
Put the chicken into a dish and pour the marinade over, turning to coat.
Cover with cling film and put in the fridge.
Leave it there for a couple of hours, or overnight.
Bring it to room temperature before cooking.
Make the relish just before you cook the chicken.
Put the garlic and salt into a mortar and bash it with a pestle until it is crushed.
Halve and deseed both chillies and chop them roughly.
Add them to the mortar with the coriander, mint and olives and bash everything together, gradually adding the virgin oil and balsamic until you have a rough paste (it should be chunky, not puréed).
Add lemon juice to taste and set aside.
Heat a griddle.
Lift the chicken out of the marinade, shaking off the excess, and cook it.
Start off on a medium heat, cooking the chicken for about two minutes on each side, then reduce the heat to low and cook for another four minutes.
The chicken should be cooked right through and singed, but not burnt.
Notes / Tips / Wine Advice:
Serve the chicken with lemon wedges, rice or flatbread, a bowl of Greek yogurt and the relish. Cucumber and green salad are good, too.
Casa Lucio is a Madrid institution. The great andthe good dine here – everyone from the royal family to Spanish movie stars andfootballers – and well heeled Madrileños, too. It isn’t cheap but the food issimple, old-fashioned and good.This is not a granddish at all, but one of the quickest and most satisfying in the book. You haveto pay attention to it while you’re cooking – turning the chicken and alteringthe heat from time to time – but it doesn’t take great skill. I finish the dishwith dry sherry rather than white wine and leave the saffron as optional (it’sa very good recipe without it).Lots of differentaccompaniments work here. Serve it with sautéed or olive oil-roast potatoes anda green salad; roast tomatoes and rice cooked with saffron; or baby spinachleaves and rice tossed with chunks of fried chorizo.You do need either ameat cleaver or a heavy knife to chop the chicken thighs. Frying chicken thighsthat are cut into pieces, but retain the bone, is common in Spanish cooking.
Using a meat cleaver or a good heavy knife, cut the thighs into 5cm (2in) pieces, then check to make sure there aren’t any little splinters of bone left.
Sprinkle with salt and leave for 10 minutes.
Separate the cloves in the bulb of garlic but don’t peel them.
Bash each one with the side of a broad-bladed knife to slightly crush.
Heat about 1cm (½in) of olive oil in a large frying pan until very hot.
Add the chicken and whole garlic cloves and cook over a high heat, shaking and moving the pieces around for about four minutes until they have a good colour, then reduce the heat a little and continue to cook, turning the chicken, for about another 10 minutes, or until cooked through.
Drain in a large sieve, getting rid of the oil.
Add the chopped garlic, vinegar, sherry, saffron (if using) and some salt and pepper to the pan.
Bring to the boil, return the chicken pieces and toss until the chicken is glossy and the liquid has been absorbed.
Everyone (or at least the food fashionable) seems to think it’s very passé to scatter dishes with parsley these days, but do it if you want to.
Couldn’t be simpler… and yet this dish packs apunch. Try to resist adding onions, tomatoes or any other ingredients orflavourings: this is good because it’s simple. It is based on a Calabrianrecipe.
Heat the oil in an ovenproof sauté pan or shallow casserole.
Season the chicken and brown it in the oil on both sides.
It should be lovely and golden.
Remove and set aside once it’s well coloured.
Tip all but 2 tbsp of fat out of the pan, but don’t clean it.
Halve, core and deseed the peppers and cut the flesh into strips about 1cm (½in) wide.
Heat the fat in the pan and fry the peppers until they are slightly singed and beginning to soften.
Season and add the garlic and chilli and cook for another two minutes.
Deglaze the pan with the vinegars and stir everything around.
Add the leaves of two of the sprigs of oregano, then return the chicken (with any juices that have run out) to the pan on top of the peppers (the peppers should be mostly covered by the chicken and the chicken should be lying in a single layer, skin side up).
Scatter on the rest of the oregano.
Put into the hot oven and cook, uncovered, for 40 minutes.
The chicken should be cooked: check by piercing the flesh of one of the legs, with the tip of a sharp knife, at the thickest part near the bone.
The juices should run clear with no trace of pink.
If you find that the chicken is getting too dark on top during cooking, then cover with foil.
Notes / Tips / Wine Advice:
Serve immediately with potatoes you’ve fried or roasted in olive oil and a green salad.
This is lovely with a salad that cuts through thesweetness – watercress and shaved fennel is good – with a buttermilk dressing.Brown rice or spelt are perfect alongside.
2orangespreferably thin-skinned, halved and cut into wedges (about 2cm/¾in thick)
salt and pepper
Instructies
Make small slits in the drumsticks with a sharp knife.
In a small bowl, mix 2 tbsp of the marmalade and 1 tsp of the mustard.
Set aside.
In another bowl, mix the remaining marmalade – squash it down with the back of spoon to break it up – the remaining mustard, the bourbon, garlic and chillies.
Put the chicken into this and turn it over so it gets well coated.
Cover and put in the fridge for a few hours (or leave it all day, or overnight if you prefer).
Bring it to room temperature before cooking.
When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 210°C/410°F/gas mark 6½.
Put the drumsticks – with all the marinade and any juices – into a roasting tin or gratin dish where they can lie in a single layer.
Add the orange wedges.
Turn the chicken and oranges over so that the oranges get coated in the marinade, too.
Season everything with salt and pepper.
Roast for 40–45 minutes, until the drumsticks are cooked through, glossy and almost caramelized.
In the last 10 minutes of the cooking time, brush the top of the drumsticks with the reserved marmalade and mustard.
Lift the oranges and drumsticks on to a serving platter and spoon some of the juices over the top.
You can’t eat the orange skin, but the flesh is nice: sweet and tart.
A pretty lazy dish – because you just leaveeverything to cook – and a good one to make midweek or on a Friday night. It’sreally important to rinse the rice before cooking it. Achiote paste is a blendof ground annatto seeds, cumin, allspice and oregano and can be found online(from www.souschef.co.uk and also www.coolchile.co.uk). It’s pretty essential as it has a unique taste and the annatto imparts anincredible yellow-orange colour. You do need fresh tomato sauce, not ketchup.
1chickenjointed into 8, or bone-in thighs and drumsticks
3tbspolive oil
salt and pepper
75g2¾oz ham, or raw pork belly, or bacon, in chunks
1onionroughly chopped
1red peppersliced
1green peppersliced
2garlic clovesfinely chopped
6allspice berries
1tbspachiote paste
2red chilliessliced into rings
6tbsphome-made or bought tomato sauce
568ml1 pint chicken stock
170g6oz basmati rice, washed well
3sprigs of thyme
2bay leaves
100g3½oz green olives stuffed with pimento
1tbspcapersrinsed
lime wedgesto serve
Instructies
Make the marinade in a dish in which the chicken will fit by just mixing everything together.
Add the chicken and turn it over so it gets coated properly.
Cover with cling film and put in the fridge for a couple of hours.
When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
Heat the oil in a broad shallow pan, season the chicken and brown the pieces all over, in batches if necessary so as not to overcrowd the pan.
(You want to colour it well, not cook it through.
) Take the chicken out of the pan and set it aside.
Add the ham (or pork or bacon) to the pan and brown it all over, lift out with a slotted spoon and add to the chicken.
Put the onion and peppers into the same pan and sauté over a medium heat until the peppers are softening.
Stir in the garlic, allspice, achiote paste and chillies and cook for another two minutes, stirring.
Add the tomato sauce and stir this in, too.
The achiote paste should dissolve.
Heat up the chicken stock.
If you are cooking in a really big shallow pan, or paella pan, you can continue in this.
Many people don’t have a pan big enough to accommodate all the chicken in a single layer and still have room for the rice, so transfer the chicken (including any juices), ham and vegetables a to a big, wide ovenproof dish (the one I use for this is 30cm/12in in diameter).
Pour the rice all round the chicken, pour over the stock, add the thyme and bay leaves and season everything really well.
Put in the preheated oven and cook for 40 minutes, until all the stock has been absorbed and the top is golden.
You don’t need to stir the rice or cover it or do anything with the dish as it cooks (in fact it’s important not to stir it).
Scatter on the olives and capers about 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time.
This is adapted from one of my favourite books, Burma: Rivers of Flavor, by Naomi Duguid. It’s full of recipes that are healthy, fresh, light and unexpected. This dish is pretty mild, so I like it with the Chilli sauce to lift it all.
Halve each chicken thigh by chopping through the centre, cutting right through the bone; you can cut each thigh in four if you want, it does cook more quickly that way.
(You need a meat cleaver or a heavy knife for this.
) Be careful that there are no splinters of bone in the chicken flesh.
Pound together the garlic, ginger, salt, chillies, ground coriander and turmeric in a mortar and pestle until you have something like a paste.
Add 1 tbsp of water, put the chicken in a bowl and pour the paste over it.
Turn the chicken over to make sure it all gets coated.
If you have time, cover it and put it in the fridge for an hour or so.
Bring it to room temperature before cooking.
Add 2 tbsp more water and the groundnut oil to the chicken, then put everything – including the marinade juices – in a wide heavy-based pan that has a tight-fitting lid.
Place over a mediumlow heat, cover and bring to a simmer.
Reduce the heat to very low and cook for 45 minutes.
That sounds like a long time, but it should be slow and gentle.
Taste for seasoning and adjust it if necessary.
Top with the spring onions and chopped coriander, plus the chilli sauce suggested in the recipe introduction (if you feel like it) and lime wedges.
Rice topped with crispy-fried shallots is good on the side, as is a vibrant, crunchy salad.
