Last week-end I did a 9km hike up Kilimanjaro, not quite but it felt like it. I struggled going up, the hip was killing me and I struggled going down, the ankles & knees taking strain. Afterwards I felt surprisingly good and wanted to reward myself for perservering and for burning a shit load of calories, never mind the fact that I spent the rest of the day flat on my back doing bugger all. For me a reward is always food ( I exercise so I can eat) so the plan was to make pizza for supper. As luck would have it, I thought I had frozen pizza bases in the freezer but no can do, we’d also run out of gas (we cook our pizza in our Weber) and Lovie wasn’t in the mood for pizza… seriously is there even such a thing???
Long story short, my reward pizza went up in smoke and I had to make an alternate plan for dinner, hence my chicken dish without a name was born. I needed something fast because I was deep into a binge fest of the Outlander series, and for once I didn’t want to be faffing in the kitchen. It literally took me 15min to throw together, and 20 min in the oven and presto, chicken dish without a name was done. I served it with leftover rice and microwaved peas (very gourmet) and dinner was served! It was flippin tasty and exceeded even my expectations, considering it took no effort to make. Lovie being a person who wasn’t in the mood for pizza, claimed it was better than pizza, for me, I’d rather have eaten pizza
I did however end the evening with a further 4 episodes of Outlander and 2 Large koeksisters AND that my friends, is how I like to spend a Saturday!
Chicken dish without a name – serves 4
- 4x chicken thighs, skin on
- Paprika to season the chicken thighs
- olive oil for frying
- 1x onion cut into wedges
- 2-3 whole cloves of garlic
- handful of cherry tomatoes (left whole)
- 1/2 red pepper, cut into chunks. I used yellow because at the time I didn’t have any red.
- large handful of button mushrooms, left whole
- small handful of green olives
- 5ml sugar
- chicken stock 250 -300ml
- 30-45ml Sun dried tomato pesto
- Drizzle of balsamic vinegar (15ml)
- Basil for garnish (optional)
Method:
- Season the chicken thighs with paprika and a little salt, on both sides.
- Heat an deep oven proof dish on the stove top over a medium heat.
- Add a generous glug of olive oil and place the thighs, skin side down. Fry until the skin is golden brown and crispy then turn them over skin side up.
- Toss in the onion wedges, whole garlic, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and peppers, tossing them about and moving them around the pan amongst the chicken thighs.
- Add the olives and sugar
- Turn the heat down slightly and let everything do its thing in the pan for 2-3 minutes, tossing and turning.
- Add the chicken stock but be careful not to pour it over your chicken thighs ( we want to keep the skin nice and crispy). The stock should not cover the skin of the chicken thighs but should be enough to prevent the onions, peppers etc from burning while in the oven.
- Place the dish in the oven and cook at 200C for 20-25min.
- Remove from the oven and place back on the stove top over a low heat. Add the sun dried tomato pesto and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.
- Squish the garlic (with the back of a spoon) to remove it from its ski.
- Check your seasoning and season accordingly. If you find your dish too wet, thicken with a little cornflour paste then simmer for a further 3-4 min.
- Garnish with chopped basil (optional)
- Serve with rice and steamed veg.
The Woolly Ninja 