While in Prague my lovely friend Anne-Maree felt a burning desire to cook a nosh for her partner Steve in their little apartment on Xmas day, just as her Dad had so many years before. This was a journey of familial enlightenment, a revisit to ancestral foundations therefore a pub nosh just wouldn’t have the same resonance.
Problem was, a trawl through the local supermarket revealed all but empty deli shelves, a humble chorizo sausage, a few chicken thighs, a red onion. Ever the creative, our girl got to work throwing the goodies plus a few spuds, lemon zest and a capsicum into an oven bag then into a convection micro-wave oven and voila – Christmas lunch! Didn’t exactly know how to work that oven, but that’s another story…
As it turns out, her instinct had taken her to a perfect duplication of Nigella Lawson’s ‘Spanish Chicken’ recipe. A beautifully tender and heart warming dish originating from a Brit’s creativity, brought to life by an Aussie, served up on a snowy winter’s day in a beautiful city in the Czech Republic.
I had the very good fortune to taste Anne-Maree’s version last night…seriously super and oh so easy! Here’s the Recipe:
• Throw a tad of olive oil into a roasting pan and toss chicken thighs in, skin side down
• Add sliced chorizo sausage, a chopped red onion, zest of an orange, touch of dried oregano, skinned capsicum quarters and a few baby potatoes cut into wedges, a spot of sea salt and grind of cracked pepper
• Pop pan into oven at preheated 220c for 1 hour or so, taking care not to let the chicken over cook and dry out
• Serve with greens or just by itself
Choose ingredient quantities according to the amount of hungry people your planning to feed.
A robust dish such as this deserves a Semillion or a lovely chilled Rosé.
Thanks as always for your wonderful hospitality Anne-Maree & Steve!
