Chicken with chickpeas and endive

A couple of weeks ago when I was trying to solve the dilemma of what to cook for dinner, I came up with a recipe of chicken thighs with turmeric and broad beans. This was delicious and I commented at the time that chickpeas would be an interesting alternative to the broadbeans I used in the last recipe.

This recipe is different to that extent, but also because I cooked chicken drummettes and left out the chilli oil I had added to the chicken thighs. I also used a bunch of baby endive that I had on hand. I added the chopped endive fresh to the chicken and found that I needed to stir it a couple of times to ensure that it combined properly as the endive softened. Steaming the endive lightly beforehand would obviate the need for this.

The flavours were all delicious together and I served it on a bed of nutty wholemeal basmati which blended with it beautifully.

Ingredients

700 gr chicken drummettes
1 dsp seasalt flakes
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp sliced ginger
2 tsp ground turmeric
juice of two lemons (about 150 ml)
400 gr cooked chickpeas
1 bunch of baby endive

Mode

Preheat oven to 210c
Arrange the chicken drummettes in a baking dish
Sprinkle with salt flakes
Peel and crush garlic and slice ginger
Add garlic, ginger, and turmeric to chicken
Mix thoroughly
Roast for 30 minutes
Meanwhile squeeze lemons
Roughly chop endive and steam lightly if desired
Remove the chicken from the oven and pour over the lemon juice
Add the chickpeas and endive and stir to combine
Return to oven and roast for another 20 minutes.
If you have not steamed the endive, stir at least once during the second phase of cooking to ensure that the mixture combines properly as the endive softens.

#blog12daysxmas Day 2 Pomegranate Chicken

For my #blog12daysxmas challenge I am going to be jumping around amongst my blogs as the fancy takes me.  For day 2 as food seems to have been uppermost in my mind for the last few days I am going to blog the recipe of the Pomegranate Chicken which I cooked last week. I love playing around with recipes and food and being on holidays gives me the opportunity to do more of it than when I am working in a full-time busy job.

So why pomegranate chicken? As always a number of triggers led to this dish. I had some chicken breasts that I wanted to cook and a friend sent me a recipe of a chicken salad she had made with pomegranate molasses.  What could I do with my chicken breasts that would have a pomegranate touch?  I read a bit of Claudia Roden for some Middle Eastern ideas and then I just started playing around with foods that I had in the kitchen.  If I may say so myself, the result was very yummy.  Well, it certainly was to me as it included so many of my favourite foods!

Ingredients

2 cups pomegranate & cranberry juice
1/2 cup baby lentils (French lentils)
4 chicken breasts
Flour
Olive oil
1 can chickpeas
Handful walnuts
1 green pepper
1 tsp Sumac
1 bunch coriander

Mode

Place the pomegranate and cranberry juice in a pan on the stove
Add lentils
Cover and bring to the boil
Reduce heat and leave simmering
Meanwhile roughly chop the chicken breasts
Flour the chicken pieces
Heat olive oil in frying pan
Quickly seal the chicken pieces in the oil and add to the simmering juice and lentils
Break up the walnuts and add
Add chickpeas and Sumac  and combine
Thinly slice the green pepper and add to the pan
Bring to the boil again and then reduce the heat and simmer for a couple of hours until all the flavours are absorbed and everything is tender
Roughly chop the bunch of coriander
Add half of it to the mixture about 10 minutes before serving and mix well
Sprinkle the rest of the fresh coriander on the chicken dish on serving.