Quick chicken with lemon and olives
This came from Nigel Slater’s The 30-minute chef. It’s a pared-down-speeded-up version of a north African recipe that you can also find in Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean cookery. But it probably will take a bit more than 30 minutes (45 is more reasonable).
(quantities for 2, and easy to halve for a single person)
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
4-6 chicken thighs (or 6 drumsticks, but thighs are best, much more meaty)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tsp saffron threads (optional)
2 tsp ground turmeric
4 oz olives
2 large lemons
Crush garlic to a paste with a little salt, mix with the paprika, cumin, pepper and half of the olive oil. Marinate the chicken in the mix.
Heat the remaining oil (you can add a knob of butter) in a pan and fry the chicken till golden. Lift out the chicken with a slotted spoon and put to one side.
Fry the onion (add a little more oil if necessary) till golden. Add the saffron, turmeric and olives, cook on a medium heat for a few minutes.
Return the chicken to the pan. Pour over the juice of a lemon, add 8 fl oz of water. Slice the second lemon, add it to the pan. Bring to the boil, cover the pan, and simmer till the chicken is cooked through, basting regularly.
You should have at least 5 tbsp spicy ’sludge’ (Nigel’s words) per person (top up with a bit more water if you need to). Check the seasoning and add salt if needed.
My notes: go steady with the lemon. The first time I did the recipe it was definitely too sharp for my liking. Taste before you add the second lemon, or even after you’ve put in about half of the first one if they’re really big lemons. Also, if you don’t have time to marinate the chicken before cooking (I always forget things like this), it doesn’t really matter. Just make the spice mix, lather it over the chicken and stick straight in the hot oil, and add any remaining oily spice mix to the pan before the onions go in. Oh, and I’m not convinced that the saffron makes any noticeable difference. I think its delicate flavour is probably slightly overwhelmed by all the lemon and spices.
I’ll probably serve this with couscous (livened up with chopped cherry tomato, fresh mint and anything else that takes my fancy).
This is a seriously delicious recipe.
Afterthoughts (because there are things you don’t remember till you actually do the recipe again): I use quite a bit more liquid than in the original recipe, to soak yummily into the couscous. I added a little ground cinnamon. And only used about half the quantity of lemon. (Though remember when tasting to allow for the fact that the blandness of couscous will counterbalance the strong spicy flavours of the recipe.) It was every bit as good as I remembered it.
