Читать книгу Kitchen Memories - Lucy Boyd - Страница 31

4 boned chicken breasts, skin on with the wing bone still attached (chicken supremes) or 4 boned chicken thighs

juice of 1 lemon

a few sprigs of fresh thyme or rosemary, leaves picked from their stems, washed, dried and finely chopped (about 1 tbsp)

2 tbsp olive oil

2–3 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled, washed and sliced lengthways into quarters

3 garlic cloves, peeled and crudely smashed

3 or 4 stems of fresh thyme, leaves picked from their stems, washed and dried

1 dried red chilli, crushed

200g purple sprouting broccoli

100g sour cream

2 fresh red chillies, cut in half lengthways, deseeded, stalk removed, then finely chopped

a few sprigs of fresh marjoram, leaves picked from their stems, washed and dried

sea salt and black pepper

Place each piece of chicken between two sheets of greaseproof paper and gently beat the meat until it has spread out to about cm thick. Put the chicken on a plate and squeeze half the lemon juice over. Scatter the tablespoon of thyme or rosemary leaves over the chicken, season with pepper and a drizzle of olive oil and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 200ºC (180ºC fan) Gas 6. Put the sweet potato quarters into a bowl with the garlic, thyme leaves, a pinch of the dried chilli and enough olive oil to just coat the potatoes, then season with salt and pepper and toss together. Place in a baking dish and cook in the oven for 35–40 minutes, turning the sweet potatoes every now and again. They are ready when they offer no resistance to a knife tip and the outside is golden and slightly caramelised.

Put a pan of salted water on to boil for the broccoli. Prepare the broccoli by cutting off the thick stem at an angle, leaving 3–4cm still attached to the buds, then slice through the stem and buds lengthways. Leave any smaller, thinner stems intact, just remove the ends. The idea is that they should all cook at the same time and so should be of roughly the same thickness.

Salt the boiling water, then plunge the broccoli in and cook for 2–3 minutes until the stem is just tender when pierced with a knife. Drain in a colander, then return to the pan and pour a little olive oil over. Season with salt and pepper and keep it warm while you cook the chicken.

Heat the grill or griddle pan until smoking hot. Season the chicken with salt, place on the hot griddle or grill and leave to cook undisturbed for minutes or so, then turn and cook for a further 4–5 minutes until the flesh has cooked through. Remove from the heat, place on a board and leave to rest for a few minutes.

Slice the chicken at an angle into strips and serve with the sweet potato, broccoli and a spoonful of sour cream. We love chilli in our family, so I lightly scatter the chopped fresh chilli over the top with a few marjoram leaves and a squeeze of lemon. This makes all the difference.