I had opened a jar of rose harissa to accompany Sabrina Ghayour’s delicious Spiced lamb kebab-loghmeh from Sirocco over the weekend and was keen to use the rest of the jar quickly! So I came up with this little recipe, using free-range corn-fed chicken legs currently available in Asda (about £2.50 for a pack of two). The yoghurt sauce is heavily inspired by Sabrina’s lamb kebab accompaniment.
Ingredients (serves 2)
For the chicken with sumac-roasted vegetables:
2 chicken legs (or 4 thighs/drumsticks, or 2 of each!)
2 tablespoons rose harissa
1 courgette, sliced
1 red onion, chopped into six wedges
1 red pepper, sliced
juice of 1 lemon
3 teaspoons sumac
3 cloves garlic, crushed with the flat of a knife
12 cherry tomatoes on the vine
2 tablespoons olive oil
For the pilau rice:
175 g basmati rice
1 cinnamon stick
6 cloves
8 green cardamon pods
300ml boiling water
2 tbsp sunflower oil
3 shallots, very finely sliced into rings
For the yoghurt sauce:
200g Greek-style yoghurt
squeeze of lemon juice
pinch of cumin
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 cucumber, cut into small dice
handful of pomegranate seeds
small bunch of mint, chopped
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan.
2. Cut a couple of deep incisions into the chicken legs. Rub the rose harissa into the chicken legs and set aside to marinade for a few minutes. Season the skin side with salt and pepper.
3. Heat a large cast-iron skillet over a high heat (there is no need to add oil). Add the chicken, skin side down, and season with salt and pepper on the underside. Move the chicken legs around the skillet to prevent them from sticking to the pan. When the skin is nice and crispy, flip the legs over and cook for a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat
4. In a small bowl, toss the onion wedges with a little oil and half the sumac. Nestle them under the chicken legs in your skillet and bung the whole thing into the oven (without a lid) for 10 minutes.
5. While the chicken and onions are getting to know each other in the oven, you can crack on with your yoghurt sauce. Simply mix the yoghurt, lemon juice, olive oil and cumin in a small bowl until they’re all combined, then mix in the diced cucumber. Sprinkle the mint and pomegranate seeds on top and set aside.
6. Using the same bowl you used for the onion wedges, toss the courgette in olive oil and sumac (you will probably need to add another slosh of oil and another bit of sumac to what’s already in the bowl). Lift the chicken out of the skillet and add the courgettes, tossing them around with the onions to give them a good mix. Replace the chicken on top of the veggies and put the dish back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
7. Put the rice in a sieve and rinse under a cold tap until the water runs quite clear. Place the rice in a pot of cold water and leave to stand for 10 minutes.
8. Heat half the sunflower oil in a pan over a high heat and quickly fry the shallot slices until they are crispy (keep an eye on them, the line between ‘crispy’ and ‘burned’ is a fine one here!). Remove with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper to allow the oil to drain off.
9. Toss the pepper slices in the small bowl with any remaining oil and sumac, the lemon juice and garlic cloves. Again, gently lift the chicken out of the skillet, add the pepper mix to the other vegetables, and give everything a good mix around before replacing the chicken on top, putting the whole lot back in the oven for another 10 minutes. I added the squeezed lemon halves to the dish for an added lemon kick, you can leave them out if you prefer. If you do add them, don’t forget to take them out before you serve, to avoid any nasty surprises amongst the sweet roasted vegetables!
10. Drain the rice in a sieve and set aside. Heat the remaining sunflower oil in a pot for which you have a tight-fitting lid and fry the cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom pods just for a few seconds, until fragrant. Then throw in the rice, bay leaves, a good pinch of salt, and the boiling water. Stir once, quickly bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and stir one more time before putting the lid on. Leave untouched over the lower heat for 10 minutes. Do not be tempted to check it!
11. Take your chicken out to test it – it should be done at this stage. To check, pierce the leg at a couple of its thickest parts and if the juices run clear, it’s done. If it’s not done, return it to the oven for another five or so minutes. If it is done, very gently make a place for the tomato vines and give them a roll around in the cooking juices. You want to be careful here to keep them on the vine. Return the dish to the oven for about five minutes, until the skin of the tomatoes is wrinkly – don’t leave them too long or they’ll turn into a mush.
12. Take your rice off the heat – the rice should have absorbed all the water by now. Stir in the crispy shallots. Serve immediately with the chicken and vegetable mix, and the yoghurt on the side.
Yvo Cooks 