A recipe from Ixta Belfrage’s excellent book, Mezcla. Pinapple has developed a bad reputation in savoury dishes but we love it … including on pizzas sometimes. Serve some steamed white rice on the side.
Wine Suggestion: we’re having an Italian moment, so chose the La Pruina Salice Salentino to go with this dish. A blend of Negroamaro and Malvasia Negra it had a suprising elegance and didn’t overwhelm the flavours despite an obvious juiciness to the fruit. Balanced and surprisingly medium bodied; we’ll be revisitng this wine again.
Chicken with pineapple and ‘nduja – serves 4
- 4 chicken thighs, at room temperature
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 medium onion, halved and very thinly sliced, ideally with a mandoline if you have one
- 300g fresh pineapple, peeled, cut into rounds, then quartered and hard core removed
- 4 tangerines or 2 oranges, squeezed to give 100g of juice
- 100g chicken stock
- 2 tbsp double cream
- 5g coriander
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
FOR THE ‘NDUJA AND CHIPOTLE PASTE:
- 50g ‘nduja paste
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp tomato purée
- ½ tsp chipotle flakes
- ½ tsp paprika
- ¾ tsp fine salt
- 20 twists of black pepper
Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan.
Put the ingredients for the ‘nduja and chipotle paste into a large bowl and mix together. Add the chicken thighs, garlic, and about ¾ of the onion and mix together well. Tip everything into a large oven-proof cast-iron frying pan or a baking dish. Make sure the chicken is skin-side up on top of the onions and garlic.
Add the pineapple to the mixing bowl and toss in any leftover paste, then arrange around the chicken.
Pour the orange juice around the chicken but make sure you don’t pour it over the chicken skin, then bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and pour in the chicken stock – again avoiding the chicken skin. Put back into the oven for another 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the skin is browned and crispy.
Rest the dish for 5-10 minutes, then drizzle over the cream. Toss the coriander with the rest of the sliced onion and a little oil and salt, then sprinkle over the top. Serve with lime wedges.
(Original recipe from Mezlca by Ixta Belfrage, Ebury Press, 2022.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 