Serves 5
This was truly the most satisfying chicken dish, as it looks like such a lot of work but is in fact incredibly easy. I based this on an Alison Roman recipe from the New York Times, and added a few extras in for fun.
A key thing to remember is to not crowd your chicken on the roasting tray, you need it to have lots of space to get crispy skin and release lots of juice. Secondly, Aa really hot oven enables you to get the skin crisp in a short cooking time.
The sauce is where the genius is at, it is simply made of the roasting juices and sticky bits from the tray mixed together whilst warm with vinegar, water and garlic.
Fat juicy green olives that are stored in olive oil, not brine work best in this dish. You could easily swap the red onion for a shallot, and leave out the sultanas if you are not a dried fruit fan. I think they are adding some much-needed sweetness to the very savoury dish!
Finish with quite literally at sh*t ton of fresh herbs, a mixture of coriander and parsley would be perfect!
Ingredients
The chicken:
4-6 large chicken legs or thighs with the skin on (if using thighs you will need to decrease the cooking time by about 5-10 mins depending on size)
2 teaspoons Turmeric
3 tablespoons Olive oil
Salt and pepper - lots
For the sauce:
1 packet of large green olives in olive oil (remove the stones) and chopped roughly
1 small red onion finely sliced
1 handful of sultanas
2 garlic cloves grated
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons white wine or apple cider vinegar
To serve:
Small bunch of parsley/ and or coriander
Method
The chicken:
Preheat oven to 220°
On a large roasting/baking tray with sides (aka, not completely flat) place your chicken legs make sure there is plenty of space between them
Season with plenty of salt & pepper
Mix in a dish the turmeric with the olive oil and drizzle over the chicken legs, using your hands to make sure the oil is really rubbed into the meat
Place chicken in the hot oven for 25-30 mins, this will depend on the size of the chicken so please adjust if the chicken is bigger or smaller
Next the sauce:
De-stone a big handful of green olives and roughly chop, add to a bowl
Finely chop a small red onion or half a big onion and add to the bowl
Grate in 2 cloves of garlic
Add the white wine or apple cider vinegar
Add the water
Add the sugar
Add a handful of sultanas and set aside
Finally, bring it together!
Remove chicken from oven, make sure it's cooked, and place in your serving dish - DON'T THROW AWAY THE ROASTING JUICES
Pour all of the liquid from your sauce into the roasting tray the chicken has just cooked in, then using a flat metal spatula or a knife scrape up all the sticky crispy chickeny cooking bits left in the pan, the liquid will deglaze the tray and help you lift them up
Pour all of the liquid from the tray back into the bowl
Mix the liquid with your olives, sultanas, and onions and then transfer to a saucepan and gently heat the sauce for 5 mins to warm through
Pour over the chicken in your serving dish
Serve with lots of parsley or coriander!