Roast Chicken With Maple Syrup and Mustard

When I made this recently I stupidly left all of the chicken on the dinner table without saving some for myself, my three boys and a friend ate the lot so it must be good!

Serves 4-6 depending on sides and appetites!

Ingredients

2.4kg chicken, cut into 10pieces or chicken pieces, skin on and bone in

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Centigrade.

Combine the syrup, mustard, salt and pepper and then pour onto the chicken, covering it completely.

Place the chicken pieces, skin side up on the roasting tin.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, basting regularly until cooked through and crispy.

Chicken With Salami

Some nights you just need something quick that uses up what’s in the fridge.

This concoction is great popped on top of a big salad.

I’ve used a felino salami here but just use any salami that you enjoy eating.

Serves 6.

Ingredients

800g diced chicken, breast of thighs

200g salami, finely diced

1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges

Pinch chilli flakes

Salt and pepper

100g baby spinach

Method

Heat a large, non stick pan over medium heat.

Once hot, add the salami and fry until the fat begins to render. Now add the onion and cook until just beginning to soften.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the salami and onion from the pan and set aside.

Turn the heat up to high and add the chicken, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the chilli flakes.

Cook until the chicken is golden and cooked through.

Return the salami and onion to the pan, stir through.

Add the spinach to the pan and stir through, as soon as it wilts serve.

Sweet and Spicy Chicken Rub

It’s always handy to have a rub recipe up your sleeve!

This is one of my favourites, not too spicy and the boys love the sweetness.

Serves 6.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon oregano, rubbed

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon chipotle chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Freshly ground pepper

2kgs chicken wings, tips removed

Method

Combine all of the rub ingredients together.

Sprinkle the rub over all of the chicken and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Centigrade and line a baking tray with parchment.

Place the wings in the prepared tin, skin side up.

Bake for 60 minutes, basting regularly.

Creamy Chicken With Fresh Peaches

It’s peach season in Western Australia and these beauties are from the Perth Hills, near where I live.

Don’t be tempted to put the peaches into the sauce for longer, they are just warmed through or they go to mush!

If you want make this ahead of time cook up to the stage of the cream thickening and then turn the heat off.

Once you are ready to eat, bring up to a gently simmer, add an extra 100mls cream, simmer gently until heated through and then continue as below.

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients

40g butter

40mls olive oil

6 chicken thighs, bone in skin on

1 brown onion, finely diced

4 garlic cloves, sliced

400mls cream

300mls chicken stock or water

3-4 large peaches, skinned, stoned and diced

1-2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley

Method

In a large frying pan with a lid, heat the butter and oil over a medium to high heat.

Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper.

Once the fat is hot, add the chicken, skin side down. Cook for 4-5 minutes until the skin is crisp.

Turn the chicken and again cook for 4-5 minutes.

Remove the chicken and set aside. Drain most of the fat out of the pan, leave a couple of teaspoons worth in the pan.

Heat the pan over a medium heat and add the onion, cook until soft, scraping the dark bits off the bottom of the pan as you go.

Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Return the chicken to the pan, turn a few times in the onion mixture.

Turn the chicken skin side up.

Pour in the cream and stock, bring to a gently simmer, cover and simmer for 30minutes.

Check that the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened. If the sauce is still a little runny, remove the lid and simmer uncovered.

Stir in the peaches, just heat them a little, sprinkle over the parsley and serve.

Green Chicken Burgers

You always need a good chicken burger recipe and this one is a cracker.

Made on the BBQ or in a pan it works well both ways.

Makes 6 burgers.

Ingredients

500g minced chicken

75g chickpea flour

30g fresh coriander, leaves and stalks chopped

2 spring onions/green onions, sliced finely

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 jalapeño, deseeded and finely diced

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and place in the fridge for at least two hours.

Heat a little olive oil in a non stick pan over a medium to high heat.

Form the meat into six patties.

Place the patties into the pan and cook for 5-6 minutes and then turn and cook for a further 4-6 minutes until cooked through and golden.

Serve with some fresh aioli in a gluten free or regular bun.

Lemon Infused Salt And Pepper

One of the best cheats to have in your pantry here! Fantastic on fish, prawns, chicken and summery salads.

I make this quantity and then store the extra in an airtight spice jar for another day.

Ingredients

6 teaspoons salt flakes

Zest of 4 lemons

20 peppercorns

Method

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Centigrade. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Measure the salt and lemon zest onto the baking parchment.

Bake for 15 minutes until the lemon has dried out and is really fragrant.

Allow to cool a little and then pour into a mortar, add the peppercorns and grind to a powder.

Roast Chicken With Creamy Lingonberry Sauce

Six ingredients make this a seriously tasty dish that’s as simple as combine, bake and baste.

If you don’t have lingonberry sauce, cranberry sauce works just as well!

You can mix the ingredients the day before you bake them if you want and this freezes well, just add a little more cream when you reheat it gently in the oven.

If you aren’t keen on chopping up a chicken, drumsticks, wings and thighs will work just as well.

Serves 6.

Ingredients

1.8kg whole chicken, cut into 10 pieces

4 tablespoons lingonberry sauce

2 tablespoons gluten free Worcestershire sauce

4 garlic cloves, crushed

250mls cream

Salt and pepper

 Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade.

In a roasting tin, combine all of the ingredients.

Cover tightly with foil and place in the oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes covered.

Remove the foil, baste with the sauce in the pan and return to the oven.

Bake for a further 30 minutes, basting regularly.

Once cooked and golden, remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Peanut And Lime Chicken Wings

In my house the boys go through real fads with what they will eat on their toast!

One of them went through a spell where lime marmalade was his spread of choice but it has gone out of favour so I wanted to use the leftovers up, coupled with peanut butter, garlic and soy sauce it makes a very tasty marinade!

Serves 6.

Ingredients

1.8kgs chicken wings, tips removed and jointed

120g peanut butter

80g lime marmalade 

50mls gluten free soy sauce

4 garlic cloves, crushed

Method

Combine all of the ingredients and leave to marinade for 2-8 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade, line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Tip the wings and marinade onto the sheet, turn them skin side up.

Bake for 45 minutes, marinating with the pan juices regularly.

Double Oregano Chicken

The oregano is growing like a weed in the garden just now so I am trying to come up with ways to use it up.

Serves 6-8.

Ingredients

8 large chicken thighs, bone in, skin on

15g fresh oregano leaves

6 garlic cloves

12 sun dried tomato halves

5g fresh parsley leaves

2 tablespoons dried oregano

45mls olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method

Whizz all of the ingredients, except the chicken, in a food processor to give you a thick paste.

Smear the paste all over the chicken and pop into the fridge to marinade for 4-8 hours.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Centigrade.

Place the chicken in a roasting tin, skin side up. Cover with foil and slide into the oven for thirty minutes.

After thirty minutes, remove the foil and baste the chicken with the pan juices, bake for a further 30-40 minutes, basting regularly, until the chicken is cooked through and well coloured.

Allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken With Saffron And Thyme

The colour of this chicken is amazing, and the taste is just as good!

The quantity of saffron may seem a little odd, the saffron I buy, comes in a tiny box and weighs 0.5g so I use half a box, a really good pinch would be an equivalent. By chopping the saffron you get more colour but it is as light as a feather so be careful not to lose any.

Also, don’t wear your favourite white top, it’s guaranteed to get stained as will your hands so metal spoons and tongs are the go here!

Serves 6.

Ingredients

30mls boiling water

0.25g saffron, chopped 

800g chicken breast, sliced 

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon fresh chopped thyme leaves

Salt and pepper

A little oil for the pan

Method

Pour the water into a non staining bowl, add the saffron and swirl around.

Once the colour has been released by the saffron add the chicken, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper to the bowl, stir with a metal spoon and then pop into the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Heat a large frying pan, I use a 32cm pan, over a medium to high heat and add a little oil. 

Using tongs, lift individual strips of chicken out of the bowl and lay them in the pan, don’t overcrowd them.

Cook for 4-5 minutes and then turn them, cook until cooked all the way through. Set aside somewhere warm and repeat with the remaining chicken.