Generally I’m much happier with a recipe when I cook.
I’d love to be able to take a bag of wildly random ingredients and turn it into something amazing but I think that’s pretty unlikely. Guess I’d never cut it on Masterchef. It’s fair to say though that most things I cook start with a recipe, then over time go through several incarnations until I’m happy with it.
This however, is an invention. I think the inspiration came when we were watching someone cook prawns in foil. Dave doesn’t like prawns, so I suggested we could use chicken instead, then we built in the things we like most – fennel for me and chorizo for Dave.
Use it as your own starting point. Don’t like fennel? Use sliced red onions. Don’t like green beans? Try asparagus. Don’t like chorizo? There’s clearly something wrong with you.
The part of this recipe I’m most pleased with is the mash. I’d tried it before by simply roasting the sweet potatoes and adding butter, which resulted in a horrible sloppy mess. The nigella in this version gives it a lovely earthiness to balance the sweetness of the cinnamon and the fragrance of the thyme. And it’s not sloppy.
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
2 bulbs of fennel, sliced thinly
A handful of trimmed green beans, cut in half
150g chorizo
¼ tsp hot smoked paprika
2 tsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1kg sweet potato
1tsp nigella seeds
1 tsp thyme
2 pinches of cinnamon
1 pinch of salt
A few grinds of pepper
How to make it
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6
2. Prick the skins of the sweet potatoes and bake for 1hr
3. In a mixing bowl put the fennel and the beans
4. Use scissors to cut the chorizo into fingernail sized pieces and add to the bowl
5. Drizzle the oil and lemon juice, then sprinkle over the paprika
6. Mix thoroughly so that everything is coated in the paprika and oil
7. Take two large pieces of foil. Add a chicken breast to each one and top with the chorizo/fennel mixture
8. Wrap up the sides of the foil, making sure that nothing can leak out and place the parcels on a baking tray
9. Turn the oven down to 180C/gas 4, move the potatoes to the bottom shelf and put the chicken on the middle shelf.
10. After 20mins remove the potatoes from the oven and cut open, leaving the steam to escape for a few minutes so they’re not too wet
11. Scoop the flesh into a bowl and break up with a fork
12. Add the nigella, cinnamon, thyme, salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly until the mash is smooth
13. Open the foil parcels carefully and serve with the mash, making sure you pour all the lovely juices over the chicken.
I’d love to be able to take a bag of wildly random ingredients and turn it into something amazing but I think that’s pretty unlikely. Guess I’d never cut it on Masterchef. It’s fair to say though that most things I cook start with a recipe, then over time go through several incarnations until I’m happy with it.
This however, is an invention. I think the inspiration came when we were watching someone cook prawns in foil. Dave doesn’t like prawns, so I suggested we could use chicken instead, then we built in the things we like most – fennel for me and chorizo for Dave.
Use it as your own starting point. Don’t like fennel? Use sliced red onions. Don’t like green beans? Try asparagus. Don’t like chorizo? There’s clearly something wrong with you.
The part of this recipe I’m most pleased with is the mash. I’d tried it before by simply roasting the sweet potatoes and adding butter, which resulted in a horrible sloppy mess. The nigella in this version gives it a lovely earthiness to balance the sweetness of the cinnamon and the fragrance of the thyme. And it’s not sloppy.
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
2 bulbs of fennel, sliced thinly
A handful of trimmed green beans, cut in half
150g chorizo
¼ tsp hot smoked paprika
2 tsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1kg sweet potato
1tsp nigella seeds
1 tsp thyme
2 pinches of cinnamon
1 pinch of salt
A few grinds of pepper
How to make it
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6
2. Prick the skins of the sweet potatoes and bake for 1hr
3. In a mixing bowl put the fennel and the beans
4. Use scissors to cut the chorizo into fingernail sized pieces and add to the bowl
5. Drizzle the oil and lemon juice, then sprinkle over the paprika
6. Mix thoroughly so that everything is coated in the paprika and oil
7. Take two large pieces of foil. Add a chicken breast to each one and top with the chorizo/fennel mixture
8. Wrap up the sides of the foil, making sure that nothing can leak out and place the parcels on a baking tray
9. Turn the oven down to 180C/gas 4, move the potatoes to the bottom shelf and put the chicken on the middle shelf.
10. After 20mins remove the potatoes from the oven and cut open, leaving the steam to escape for a few minutes so they’re not too wet
11. Scoop the flesh into a bowl and break up with a fork
12. Add the nigella, cinnamon, thyme, salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly until the mash is smooth
13. Open the foil parcels carefully and serve with the mash, making sure you pour all the lovely juices over the chicken.
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