This chicken dish is from OTK Shelf Love and is absolutely delicous; your kitchen will smell amazing. We had to try a few shops before we found the berbere spice, but it’s easily found online and worth the hunt. Out of interest this spice is integral to Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking and has a fiery, warm character that we now love. We served with roast Brussels sprouts with hazelnuts but any greens would be good.
Berbere spiced chicken, carrots & chickpeas – serves 4 to 6
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled
- 45g fresh coriander, separate the stocks and leaves and roughtly chop both
- 2½ tbsp berbere spice
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 2½ tbsp runny honey
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 800g carrots, peeled and cut into 4-5cm lengths
- 2 tins of chickpeas, drained
- 8 chicken thighs
- 2-3 oranges, leave one whole and juice the rest to get 100ml
Heat the oven to 200C fan.
Put the onion, garlic, coriander stalks, berbere spice, tomato purée, honey, 1 tbsp of vinegar, 4 tbsp of oil, 1¾ tsp of salt and plenty of black pepper into a food processor and blend until smooth.
Put the mixture into a large roasting tin with the carrots, chickpeas, chicken thighs, orange juice and 150ml of water, then toss to combine.
Arrange the thighs so they are on the surface and skin-side up, then cover the dish tightly with foil. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and cook for another 40 minutes, turning the dish around half way through. Set aside for 10 minutes before serving.
Meanwhile, peel and segement the whole orange and roughly chop the flesh. Put the orange into a bowl with the coriander leaves, 2 tbsp of vinegar and 2 tbsp of oil. Season with salt and pepper and mix together.
When ready to serve, spoon the dressing over the baking dish and serve.
(Original recipe from Ottolenghi Test Kitchen Shelf Love by Noor Murad & Yotam Ottolenghi, Ebury Press, 2021.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 