This is a totally fabulous recipe from Nigella Lawson’s
book Kitchen (one of my favourite recipe books – see my review for the full
run-down). It’s golden, greasy and bursting with flavour; perfect for a night
in when you really fancy a feast.
Ingredients
2-3 chicken thighs
Half a chorizo
2 medium-sized potatoes
An orange, for zesting
Dried oregano
Olive oil, salt and black pepper
Sweet peppers, to serve – a mixture of colours or just
one if it’s all you’ve got
Serves 2.
This is a gloriously simple dish, but it does need a good
while in the oven, so make sure you allow enough time (don’t make the mistake I
do of only starting to prepare a meal when you actually feel hungry)! First,
put the kettle on to boil, and get the oven preheating to 180˚C
(160˚C
if you’ve got a fan oven). Peel the potatoes, chop into rough chunks and boil
for about 10 minutes, with a pinch of salt. Then drain them and, holding the
lid on firmly, give them a really good shake to fluff up the outsides. This is
the key to really crunchy roasties.
Next, get a roasting tin that’s just the right size – if
in doubt, go too small rather than too big, as that makes sure all the lovely
juices stay squashed in with the ingredients rather than dribbling out to the
edges of the pan. Put in a splash of olive oil and rub the chicken pieces in
it, skin-side-down, then turn them over. Sprinkle the skin well with black
pepper and salt. Add the potatoes, making sure (as far as possible) that they
are all in contact with the bottom of the pan – if they’re all piled up, then
the ones on the top just kind of get steamed, rather than going crispy. You
don’t need to add any more olive oil because the chorizo will release plenty.
Roughly slice the chorizo (make sure the lumps are decent-sized,
rather than thin slices) and scatter these across the pan. Finally, sprinkle
the whole thing with oregano and grate over a couple of teaspoons of orange
zest. Stick the tin in the oven and set a timer for one hour. Halfway through,
take the tin out and baste the ingredients with the lovely orange chorizo
juices – essentially, that means scoop up the oil with a teaspoon and sprinkle
it over the chicken and potatoes.
About fifteen minutes before you want to serve up, turn
the grill up to full whack and stick the peppers under it. Turn them as the
skins blacken – don’t worry, you want them to burn. If your oven and grill are
combined, just wait until the full hour has passed, then move the roasting tin
down to the bottom and do the peppers at the top. Once the peppers are
blackened on all sides, carefully peel off the burnt, papery skin and strip the
seeds out of the middle, then slice. Serve up a chicken thigh with a generous
helping of golden potatoes and crispy chorizo, and a pile of lovely sweet
grilled peppers, and wash it down with a glass of red wine. Bliss.
Ingredients