Toss the vegetables on the tray, lay the chicken on top, put it in the oven. The only piece of equipment is the tray.
This dish normally starts with buying rosemary, thyme and a lemon. Herbs get used once and the rest wilts in the fridge. A dusting of FlareLine over everything lets you skip that part. The citrus, the green aroma and the single grain of heat are all in the one bottle.
Inspice already has an oven-baked chicken steak made with Dish. That one is chicken alone, seasoned and rested for 30 minutes before it goes in. This one takes the vegetables with it and goes straight into the oven with no resting. Same oven, different job. And because it uses the FlareLine series, with habanero in the blend, this is a chicken steak with a sharp heat to it — one for the adults.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- FlareLine CITRUS EMBER, or GREEN NUDGE: as much as you need (a thin dusting over all the vegetables and the chicken)
- Chicken thighs: 2 (about 500 g)
- Potato: 1
- Onion: 1
- Sweet pepper: 1
- Courgette: 1 (an aubergine works too)
- Cherry tomatoes: 8
- Garlic: 3 cloves
- Lemon: 1/2 (if you have one)
- Salt (for the chicken): 0.8% of the weight of the chicken (4 g for 500 g)
- Salt (for the vegetables): two pinches
- Olive oil: 2 tbsp
CITRUS EMBER leans citrus, through lemon peel and makrut lime leaf. GREEN NUDGE leans green, through basil and tarragon. Either one on its own will make the dish.
Preparation
- Line the tray with baking paper.
- Cut the potato into 5 mm rounds, skin on. Cut the onion into wedges. Cut the sweet pepper and the courgette into bite-sized pieces. Cut the garlic cloves in half, skins still on.
- Cut each chicken thigh into 3.
Method
- Lay the potato out on the tray in a single layer, without pieces overlapping, and spread the onion, sweet pepper, courgette and garlic over it. Shake over the two pinches of salt for the vegetables, as much CITRUS EMBER as you need and 1 tbsp of olive oil, and turn it all through with your hands.
- Rub the salt for the chicken and as much CITRUS EMBER as you need into the chicken thighs and lay them on the vegetables, skin side up. As they cook the chicken fat runs down and coats the vegetables underneath.
- Scatter over the cherry tomatoes and the lemon, thinly sliced, and trickle over the remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil.
- Roast at 180°C for 40 minutes. If the skin has not coloured enough, give it longer, up to a further 10 minutes.
- Take it out, let it rest for about 5 minutes, and carve. One more shake at the end brings back the aroma the heat drove off.
Three things to know
The potato is not parboiled. Cut into 5 mm rounds and laid on the base of the tray, it cooks through in 40 minutes. Cut thicker and the middle stays raw, so keep this one thin.
Salt it slightly heavily. In the oven the vegetables give up water, and the seasoning reads thin. For the chicken, working out 0.8% of the weight on a calculator is the sure way.
Cut the vegetables bite-sized. Large pieces will not cook through. When a fork goes in cleanly, it is done.
