Roast chicken pieces is a nice easy one for a meal for one. Add your favourite starch (potatoes is easy for this) and veg (roast veg is easy for this), and you have a meal. Takes a while, but it's usually unattended. A rough-guide recipe follows:
Ingredients:
- Chicken pieces (I use thighs)
- Marinade (given below)
1) Marinade the pieces for a few hours (I've done as little as 1.5hours with good results). Butterflying drumsticks helps get the flavour in there.
2) Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C.
3) Whack the marinaded chicken and potato in for 30mins. I usually use a roasting tray with a grid. For tasty potatoes (and unhealthy, unfortunately), position the potatoes below the chicken so they get coated in the fatty goodness (drool). For a healthier option, par-boil the potato then add them to the grid-area when you turn the chicken pieces.
4) Turn the chicken pieces (and if going for the healthy route, add the par-boiled potatoes).
5) Add the veg to the grid and roast for another 30mins or until done, using the leftover marinade to occasionally keep the chicken moist.
Quite a rough guide, I know, but that's the beauty: no thinking "hmmm I need xyz for this to work". You just add whatever you like and it always turns out great.
The marinades I often use (with no specific quantities... I just wing it)
1) BBQ: Enough tomato sauce to coat the chicken pieces (with about a tablespoon or so extra), a few tablespoons of chutney, some Worcestershire sauce (to taste... Some people don't like it, but I like a LOT), salt, pepper and sugar to taste. To marinade, dump all your chicken pieces (did you clean them?
) into a container that will allow you to coat the pieces quite easily. Add the marinade ingredients in whatever order you feel like. Close the container and shake around while watching TV for like 30seconds. Place in refridgerator until you're ready to cook!
2) Lemon chili: Olive oil, lemon juice, chillis (spelling??). Finely chop chillis. I find that it doesn't matter what chillis you use, as long as you're consistent (i.e. don't mix different chillis). If you use the same chillis, it turns out well no matter what you use, but if you mix chillis, I find the actual chilli flavour gets drowned out, and you're left with lemon that burns your mouth. To marinade, dump all your chicken pieces in a container that will allow you to coat the pieces quite easily. Add the marinade ingredients in whatever order you feel like. Close the container and shake around while watching TV for like 30seconds. Place in refridgerator until you're ready to cook!
