There’s a few different ingredients in this Ottolenghi dish but they are worth seeking out. We’ve served this to friends a few times and it’s very popular. Serve with steamed rice and corn tortillas.
Wine Suggestion: A juicy red with gentle, warm, velvety spices is what we’d recommend, like a Grenache blend from the Southern Rhône. Romain Roche’s Cairanne is a current favourite; so smooth and effortless, but with great depth and expression. All velvety southern French sunshine and joie de vie.
Spicy chicken bake with blue cheese dressing – serves 4
- 15 dried cascabel chillies, stems and seeds removed
- 15g dried chipotle chillies, stems and seeds removed
- 3 limes, 2 tbsp juice and 1 cut into wedges to serve
- 150g celery, peeled and very thinly cliced
- 1 red chilli, roughly chopped with seeds left in
- 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 onions, halved and thinly sliced
- 450g cooked rotisserie chicken, discard the skin and roughly tear into large pieces
- 20g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
- 5 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
- 150g buffalo mozzarella, roughly torn
FOR THE BLUE CHEESE DRESSING:
- 150g soured cream
- 100g cream cheese
- 100g Roquefort cheese or Gorgonzola, finely crumbled
- 1 tbsp whole milk
Put the chillies into a small bowl and pour boiling water over to cover. Weigh down with a saucer and set aside for 10 minutes.
Put the lime juice, celery and a pinch of salt into a small bowl, mix well and set aside to pickle.
Drain the chillies and roughly chop. Put into a food processor with the fresh chilli, garlic and tomatoes, then blitz until smooth.
Heat the oven to 240C, or as high as your oven goes.
Put the oil into a large, shallow cast-iron pan and place over a medim-high heat. Add the onions and cook for 12 minutes, stirring now and then, until softened and deeply browned. Add the whizzed chilli mixture, 100ml of water and 1½ tsp of salt. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Add the cooked chicken and another 100ml of water and simmer for another 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the coriander and two-thirds of the scallions.
In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients for the blue cheese dressing along with a pinch of salt and mix to combine. Reserve half the mixture and dollop the rest over the chicken mixture. Top with the torn mozzarella and bake for 15 minutes or until browned and bubbling. Leave to rest for 5 minutes.
Stir the rest of the scallions into the pickled celery and spoon half over the chicken bake. Serve the rest of the celery, the blue cheese dressing and lime wedges on the side.
(Original recipe from Ottolentghi Test Kitchen Extra Good Things by Noor Murad & Yotam Ottolenghi, Ebury Press, 2022.)
We really miss cooking for friends and family which is what we do almost every weekend (and some other nights too!). So instead of prepping for the evening we’ve been making more of an effort at lunch. Last week we had these unusual quesadillas outside in the sunshine, sure beats lunch at the desk!
Jono & Jules do food & wine 