Greek-style chicken

This is a simple, quick, tasty recipe for a midweek dinner or weekend lunch. It's based on a recipe for Greek grilled chicken from Little Spice Jar, except I've baked instead of grilled, and added a few olives for more Greek flavour. I served this with polenta (note to self: never make polenta ever again!), and in winter the chicken is good with something absorbent (mashed potato, couscous) because the marinade makes a sauce, but for the summer I would serve this with salad or vegetables. This recipe serves two people.

Ingredients

  • 2 large chicken breasts
  • 1 large (or two small) lemons
  • 6 to 10 pitted green olives
  • 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon of dried rosemary
  • 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme
  • 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil

Method

  1. Make the marinade (don't worry, it will only need half an hour of marinading!): mix everything except the chicken, lemon and olives in a large-ish bowl.
  2. Add the lemon juice to the marinade, mix well, and then put in the chicken. Leave to steep for half an hour.
  3. Heat the oven to 200°C.
  4. Slice the remains of the lemon, and slice the olives.
  5. Once the marinading is done, put the chicken, with its marinade, into a small casserole dish, so that the chicken breasts sit together cosily. Scatter over the olive slices, and lay the slices of lemon over the chicken.
  6. Bake for 35 minutes. When it's done, test by cutting open the thickest part of each breast to ensure it's not pink inside. 
  7. Discard the lemon slices, slice the chicken, and serve.

Polenta corn bread

For some reason that I forget, I needed a bit of polenta for a recipe recently, and I could only find a kilo bag of fine polenta (which seems to be another name for corn meal). So now I need ingenious ways of using it up, and here's a good one. I noticed that British recipes for corn bread always involve as much wheat flour as corn meal, which seems odd, and kind of pointless if I want to use up the polenta, so this is based on an American recipe. I served it hot from the oven for brunch, with fried eggs and streaky bacon.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (264g) of fine polenta or cornmeal
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
  • 1 red chilli
  • 50g cheddar cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 50g unsalted butter
  • 1 and 1/2 cups of plain yoghurt

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 200°C and take the egg out of the fridge.
  2. Put the butter in a little dish and put in the microwave for 30 to 50 seconds until melted. Leave it to cool while you do the rest.
  3. Grease a 23cm pie dish (I used the butter paper for this).
  4. In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients: polenta, salt, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and paprika.
  5. Cut the chilli pepper in half lengthways and de-seed it. Chop it finely widthways into little red curlicues.
  6. Grate the cheese finely.
  7. In another bowl, mix together the yoghurt, cheese, chilli and melted butter.
  8. Lightly beat the egg and then mix it into the yoghurt mixture.
  9. Make a well in your polenta mixture, and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir until it's all just combined.
  10. Pour the mixture into the pie dish, and bake for half an hour, at which time it will be risen, browning slightly, and coming away at the edges of the dish. I served this almost straight away, when the texture is very light and crumbly - but I have high hopes of eating it cold the next day too.

Faux piri-piri chicken

This is my own version of the famous Nando's piri-piri chicken, which is easy, quick, tasty, and fairly healthy too. I served the chicken in pitta breads with lettuce, tomato and mayo, and then cold in sandwiches the next day, but it would also do well as a main with vegetables or rice. I was lucky enough to attend a wedding in Portugal, where I acquired a little bottle of piri-piri sauce (which resembles Tabasco), but if you don't have any, this dish will work just as well.

Ingredients

  • 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
  • 1 red pepper
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 2 lemons
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon of tomato purée
  • 1 tablespoon of white vermouth
  • 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric powder
  • 2 teaspoons of smoked hot paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 teaspoon of black pepper
  • A few drops of piri-piri sauce (if you have it)

Method

  1. Make the marinade: take a bowl large enough for all the chicken, and in it mix the oil, tomato purée, vermouth, spices, salt and pepper. Add a few drops of piri-piri sauce if you have it.
  2. Crush the garlic and mix this with the rest of the marinade.
  3. Cut the lemons in half, and squeeze the juice of three halves into the marinade. If you're inattentive like me, spend the next ten minutes fishing lemon seeds out of the mix. Reserve the remaining half lemon for later.
  4. Cut the pepper into small dice and add these to the marinade.
  5. Now for the chicken. Cut each breast in half across the width, and add the six pieces to the marinade. Get your hands in there and mix to make sure the meat is well covered. Then set aside for at least half an hour, or overnight in the fridge.
  6. When you're ready to eat, heat the oven to 200°C.
  7. Take a lasagne dish or large casserole dish and put the chicken into it, with its marinade. Make sure the chicken pieces are in an even layer, but not too spread out. Similarly, make sure the pieces of pepper are close to the chicken, so that they add their juice to the meat while cooking, and also don't burn.
  8. Slice the remaining half lemon thinly, and then cut each slice in half. Lay these slices over the chicken.
  9. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes. At the end of that time it will smell fantastic, and look slightly blackened in places. The lemon will be tangy and chewy, and the chicken tender and full of flavour. 
  10. Slice the chicken pieces to serve, and season with some more piri-piri sauce if you like. Enjoy!