After nearly a week of being uninterested in food and cooking due to a non-Covid infection, on Sunday my interest was suddenly stirred by a chicken thigh recipe in an ABC newsletter. Whilst the ABC recipe and my final recipe in the end bear little relation to each other, the ABC recipe was definitely the trigger for my imagination and made me think about chickens and the plums I have had pickling in a high cupboard for years (based on Stephanie Alexander’s recipe which she suggests will last a year). The ABC writer also wrote about what she was cooking in a way to use the process to stir the imagination with different tastes and that started me thinking about what to cook.
The end result with some cauliflower and Chinese broccoli added to the other ingredients was quite a delicate blend of flavours all of which could be sensed. I served mine with brown rice which mopped up the plum-flavoured chicken juices. Thank you to the ABC and to Stephanie both of whom constantly inspire me!
Ingredients
5 chicken thighs (skinned) - about 800 gr
3 tbs soy sauce
3 gloves garlic crushed
3 tsp crushed garlic
Rind of half lemon
150 gr olive oil
4 dsp spiced plums
A handful of cauliflower florets
2 cups chopped Chinese broccoli
150 gr Zero shiraz
Mode
Crush the garlic and ginger
Finely slice the rind off the lemon and cut into slivers
Place the chicken in bowl
Pour over the soy and olive
Add garlic, ginger and lemon rind
Stir to cover the chicken
Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight
Preheat the oven to 200c
Assemble the ingredients in a baking dish or tray with an edge
Place the chicken in the dish
Pour over it any remaining marinade and scrape in any delicious ginger, lemon and garlic bits
Spoon the pickled plums around the chicken
Break the cauliflower into florets and poke in
Pour over the Zero shiraz
Give it shake and put it in the oven
Bake uncovered for 40 minutes
Just before then chop the Chinese broccoli roughly
Remove the chicken dish from the oven
Stir through the broccoli and turn over chicken in the process
Cover with foil or a lid.
Cook for another 20 minutes.
