LAZY DAY/EVENING MEAL …
Look what is not to like? I do a great deal of cooking, it used to be that I would just prepare a decent breakfast, send everyone on their merry way, have the day to myself to get on with things & then cook a good evening meal.
Now days, it is all change - Again!! - During lockdown it was breakfast, lunch & dinner for seven, then six for the last two years. Finally some of my family have moved on to exciting new plans so it is mostly meals for 3! However my time is not my own like it used to be. I find myself producing two main meals a day, lunch & dinner…
As much as I like to cook, sometimes I just think ‘here we go again’ - as I look at one of my other projects that really needs my time and attention that gets put on a back burner whilst I produce another picture perfect meal. I can’t help it - If I do something I like to do it well… So I become immersed in cooking instead of getting on with other ‘stuff’!
So here is a easy meal - I call it ‘Lazy’ because it sounded right for this post - but lets be honest nothing about good cooking is lazy - but this meal becomes as easy & lazy as I get!
Oven 180 - 190 degrees
Put chicken thighs in a roasting tin, or better still a shallow casserole dish. Skin side up snuggly sitting together.
Mix some Dijon mustard with olive oil & garlic together & daube this roughly over the chicken, season with black pepper.
Squeeze any vegetables, in this case carrots & broccoli stems in between the chicken. Cut some new potatoes into bite size pieces & slot them around the vegetables & chicken.
Glug some white wine over the meal so it runs under the chicken, sprinkle with a teaspoon of chilli flakes - to taste.
Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, check half way through to check if you need to add any more liquid. Remove from the oven & check the seasoning.
If the chicken skin is not crispy enough then put the entire dish under a hot grill to crisp it up. Do not do this if you are using a pottery casserole dish as the heat will obviously crack it. You will need to take the chicken out of the dish to crisp it up and then return the chicken to the dish if using a pottery dish - For the record I have found that my chicken always crisps up! - I am not showing off it just does!
The recipe shown in the image also has some grated cheese added to the dish, you can put the cheese of your choice over the chicken 10 minutes before taking it out of the oven.
Put some foil over the chicken for 10 minutes keeping it warm, this will enhance the flavour, before serving.
When ready to serve, sprinkle with parsley - for the look! Serve with crusty bread, that you can dunk into the sauce or some rice if you feel that you want to cook a separate dish.
VARIATIONS ON THE THEME!
You can add -
Crème Fraiche to the sauce!
Sliced red onions are nice too!
Sausages make a real feast of this meal!
Don’t add white wine, instead squeeze some lemon juice over the chicken, add some herbs I capers & sprinkle with honey, this makes a very sticky version of this meal - quite delicious!!
The choice is yours & the variations are limitless!
