Week One Recipes

Chargrilled Lemon & Thyme Chicken with Baby Roast Potatoes and a Green Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette (Serves 4)

The fresh flavours of this first dinner recipe are perfect for the season right now. It is important to marinate the chicken before cooking it as it really does improve the flavour – overnight would be the best option. On the day you’re eating it, start by cooking the baby roast potatoes and preparing the salad/dressing, then 10-15 minutes before the potatoes are ready, cook the meat. I prefer to cook the chicken on a griddle pan as it gives a lovely crispy, chargrill effect however if you don’t have one, a regular frying pan works. This dinner is courtesy of two of my favourite cookery book writers, Diana Henry and Delia Smith. The chicken is from Diana Henry’s ‘ Pure, Simple Cooking’, I have a few of her cookbooks so no doubt you will see her name cropping up again soon on this blog. The potatoes are a classic recipe from Delia Smith (a blast from the past!), a cookery writer who never disappoints!

At the beginning of lockdown I found it difficult to find chicken thighs at my butchers, but I discovered an abundance of them online from Fosse Meadows and from Coombe Farm Organic, I would recommend both of these websites for high quality meat – I tried both the chicken and duck (breast). Coombe Farm Organic meat is delivered frozen. To tell you the truth I was always a bit of a snob about freezing meat, assuming that it would impart the flavour, but during lockdown I have had to freeze it and it has not effected the flavour at all, so I will probably continue to keep a few cuts frozen in the future. I think that the most important factor is to buy it from a reputable source.

Chargrilled Chicken with Lemon and Thyme (serves 4)

8 boneless chicken thighs, skin on (if you buy from a butcher ask him to bone them for you)

60ml olive oil

chopped leaves from about 10 generous sprigs of thyme

sea salt and black pepper

juice of 1 lemon

lemon wedges to serve

1. Flatten out the chicken thighs and make some slits on them. Rub with the olive oil and pat on the thyme leaves. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge overnight or for a couple of hours.
2. Heat a griddle pan (or a frying pan) until it is really hot. Season the chicken and put on the pan, skin side down. Let it sizzle for about 2 minutes then lower the temperature and continue to cook until the thighs are cooked through – turning half way through, so that both sides are well browned.
3. Pour over the lemon juice and serve immediately with the baby roast potatoes and the green salad dressed with the lemon vinaigrette.