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John’s Moroccan Chicken

Posted on February 3, 2023 by The quirk and the cool

Well, he’s at it again! My friend John has been busy devising some new recipes.

A few weeks ago, I was treated to a lovely lunch at Palm Beach. It’s certainly a beautiful spot on the northern beaches of Sydney, perfect for a lazy summer lunch.

John’s new creation was Moroccan Chicken, a simple dish full of flavour that’s easy to put together.

You can make the dish super simple by using a good quality store bought Moroccan paste.

Here’s the recipe. It feeds 4 people. You could easily up the quantities if you’re feeding a crowd.

Ingredients

1.2 kilos chicken thighs (about 300g each)

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon Moroccan Paste (Charmaine Solomon’s Moroccan Spice Blend is available in Australia)

400g Roma tomatoes cut in half (any smallish tomatoes will do)

4 large sprigs rosemary

4 slices prosciutto

4 lemon slices

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Put the chicken thighs in a large bowl and add 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and the Moroccan paste. Mix everything together, making sure the chicken is well coated with the paste.

Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for several hours or overnight.

Remove from the fridge and transfer to a baking dish and scatter the tomato halves on top of the chicken.

Pour the remaining tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil over the dish. Lay the prosciutto slices on top, with the slices of lemon and the rosemary sprigs. Sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper.

Cover the dish with aluminium foil bake at 200 degrees C, 180 degrees C fan for 30 minutes. Uncover the dish and bake for further 10-15 minutes or until the prosciutto is crisp and the chicken thighs are cooked.

Serve with couscous, crusty bread, a big green salad and a nice glass of something cold!

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Lemon Chicken Traybake

Posted on April 10, 2022 by The quirk and the cool

I love a simple recipe that’s quick to prepare and doesn’t take much effort. Well this is a no-brainer.

Everything in a baking dish and cooked for an hour. That’s it. Simple. And very tasty!

Writing this recipe has actually taken me longer than preparing it. Simple.

Ingredients

3 cloves garlic

8 shallots

4 new potatoes

4 chicken thigh fillets, on the bone

8 artichoke hearts in brine

2 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of 2 lemons

1 generous tablespoon pomegranate molasses (you can substitute balsamic vinegar)

Rock salt and black pepper

1 teaspoon honey

1 lemon finely sliced

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C fan forced.

Peel the garlic and slice into chunky slivers. Peel the shallots and half the larger ones, leave smaller ones whole. Chop the new potatoes into quarters.

Place these ingredients into a large bowl. Add the chicken thigh fillets and the artichoke hearts. Pour over the olive oil, the lemon juice and the pomegranate molasses or balsamic vinegar. Grind rock salt and black pepper liberally over everything. Stir the whole lot to make sure everything is well coated with the oil, lemon juice and molasses.

Put everything into a large baking dish. Make sure the chicken pieces aren’t covered with the vegetables. Drizzle the honey over the chicken thighs. Scatter the lemon slices over the dish.

Bake for about an hour in the preheated oven, turning the temperature down to 180 degrees after 10 minutes, and at 30 minutes do a quick baste with the pan juices.

After an hour the chicken should be brown and sticky. Give it another 5 minutes if you think it needs it.

Take out of the oven and you’re ready to serve! Because you’ve got potatoes inside the tray bake you don’t need any rice or pasta! Just a lovely green salad. And maybe some crusty sourdough bread.

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Oven Baked Chicken Risotto

Posted on February 12, 2022 by The quirk and the cool

I posted this recipe from Australia’s wonderful Bill Granger during lockdown the year before last. It seems so strange to be talking about lockdown in 2020 when we are still dealing with the pandemic…

It’s quick and easy because it’s an oven baked risotto. It makes sense to let the oven do the cooking rather than spend all that time stirring on the stove top.

Recently, a friend told me that this dish is her go to recipe for risotto, as it’s so much easier than cooking risotto the traditional way.

So I thought it’s about time I posted it again, to encourage reluctant risotto cooks to give it a go!

Bill’s recipe has leeks and asparagus as the veggies. You could replace the leeks and/or asparagus with whatever you fancy – zucchini, peas, broad beans or even tomatoes for a red hued risotto.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
500g chicken breast or thighs, cut into thin strips
1 onion, finely chopped
1 leek, sliced into rounds
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
250g Arborio rice
500ml chicken stock
250ml white wine + extra if needed
1 bunch of asparagus, sliced on the diagonal
A handful of grated parmesan or pecorino cheese, plus extra to serve
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large casserole dish on the stove top over a high heat. Add the chicken pieces and cook, stirring frequently for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and set aside.

Add the remaining olive to the pan, then the onion and leek, and cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until the onion and leek are soft. Add the lemon zest and cook, stirring for 30 seconds. Add the Arborio rice and stir to coat the grains in the oil. Add the chicken stock and white wine, and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.

Cover the casserole and put in the oven for 20 minutes. At this point, if the risotto seems to have absorbed all the liquid, add a splash or two of white wine. Add asparagus, return the chicken to the casserole and bake for a few minutes or until the asparagus is just tender, the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked. Bill says to do this for 3-4 minutes, I found it took more like 10 minutes to fully cook the rice.

Stir in parmesan or pecorino and season with salt and pepper. Serve with extra cheese.

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Ottolenghi’s Roasted Chicken and Clementines

Posted on July 10, 2020 by The quirk and the cool



I’m revisiting an Ottolenghi recipe I cooked a while back in 2017. Firstly, because it’s a great recipe for cooking up a one pan chicken dish, but mostly because clementines are now available in Australia!

Back then, I substituted mandarins for clementines, and that worked well. But now we can can buy them locally. And I also have my very own miniature clementine tree growing in my courtyard garden!

The original Ottolenghi recipe “Roasted Chicken with Clementines and Arak” is from his beautiful book Jerusalem.

I made some variations to the dish, which I mention here. I’m not a big fan of anything aniseed, so I used cumquat brandy instead of an aniseed liqueur. An orange liqueur, or ordinary brandy, would be fine too. For the same reason, I substituted shallots for the fennel bulbs.  I also cut down on the sugar in the recipe.

Ingredients

100ml orange liqueur or any good brandy (or Arak in the original recipe)
4 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp grain mustard
1.5 tbsp light brown sugar
6 shallots (or 2 medium fennel bulbs as in original)
8 chicken thighs with the skin and on the bone
4 clementines unpeeled, sliced horizontally into slices  (or mandarins if you can’t get clementines)
1 tbsp thyme leaves
2 tsp fennel seeds, slightly crushed
Salt and black pepper

Method

Put the liqueur/brandy, olive oil, orange and lemon juices, musard and brown sugar in a large bowl with 2 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper. Whisk well and set aside.

Peel the shallots and add to the bowl, with the chicken pieces, clementine slices, thyme and fennel seeds. Stir well to make sure the marinade covers the chicken pices.

Leave to marinate in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C. Transfer the chicken and its marinade to a baking dish that’s large enough to fit everything  in a one layer.  The chicken should be skin-side  up.

Put the baking dish in the oven and roast for 35 to 45 minutes, until the chicken is brown and cooked through. Remove the dish from the oven.

Ottenenghi suggests removing the chicken, clementine slices and shallots to a serving plate, while you reduce the cooking liquid in a small saucepan. The sauce is then poured over the chicken.

I served the chicken straight from the baking dish at the table as I like the idea of serving chicken and juices all in one.

A great dish – super easy and utterly delicious!

Clementine tree ready for planting.

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