Spicy Chicken with Olives, Lemon and New Potatoes

Serves: 4

Preparation: 20 minutes, plus a further hour for marinade

Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Category: Flexitarian

Plan: Quick to prepare, or cook day in advance

Storage: Refrigerate and/or freeze for up to 3 months

Difficulty: Easy

Course: Main

Cuisine: Lunch / Entertaining

This is a Nigel Slater recipe, packed to the hilt with astonishing deep flavour and we think this is an absolute winner!!   He suggests that thighs, with their brown meat, have the best, juiciest flavour and they work superbly with the suggested mix of ingredients.

This dish involves new season potatoes (or use salad potatoes at other times of the year) and we accompanied this dish with baby broccoli spears, fine green beans and English asparagus.   The juices with the asparagus were out of this world!

Ingredients

• 1 kg of plump chicken thighs/or breasts
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 large Spanish onions, cut into thick wedges
• 1 unwaxed lemon, finely sliced (I halved each slice)
• 350g salad potatoes (or New Jersey Royals if in season) sliced diagonally - you might want a few more!
• One pack of green olives
• Chicken stock (I used a stock cube in 450 mls boiling water)

For the Paste Marinade

• 4-5 large cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 pinch of salt
• 3-4 tablespoons olive oil

Method:

1. First, measure out the ingredients so that nothing can be forgotten.
   
   
2. Pre-heat the oven to 190C Fan or 200C.
   
   
3. Start with making the paste for the marinade, which can be made either with a pestle and mortar or in a small food processor.
   
   
4. Add together the salt, paprika, turmeric, cumin seeds and olive oil and then either grind or pulverise in the processor, which takes merely seconds.
   
   
5. Put the chicken pieces into a flat dish and cover each piece thoroughly with the spicy paste (best to use gloves for this) and leave to marinate in the fridge for an hour or longer.
   
   
6. Heat the oil in preferably in a flat pan and brown on both sides.
   
   
7. Add the chunks of onion, sliced potatoes and add the stock up to half way up the chicken.
   
   
8. Now place the lid on the pan and cook in the oven for about 15 minutes.
   
   
9. Remove, the lid and add the olives and once again, cover and cook for a further 5-6 minutes.
   
   
10. The chicken and potatoes should now be soft and fragrant.
    
    
11. The dish is now ready to be served with seasonal vegetables - the gravy is wonderful!