FEEDS 4-6
To call this a traybake does this recipe a disservice – and yet a traybake is precisely what it is. Golden, crispy chicken skin and sticky pomegranate onions meld with sweet heat from the ancho chilli and lovely aromatics from the spices. The creamy tahini gives the plate a savoury note. Bliss. The juices are to die for.
INGREDIENTS
8 chicken thighs, or 1 chicken, jointed
3 red onions, each cut into 6 wedges
500g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
4 tablespoons olive oil
2–3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses, plus extra to serve
Large bunch of flat-leaf parsley
For the adobo rub
3 garlic cloves, skin on
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
30g ancho chilli flakes
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1½ teaspoons soft brown sugar
1½ teaspoons sea salt
3 tablespoons orange juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
For the whipped tahini
100g tahini
4 tablespoons lemon juice
120ml (½ cup) water
½ teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 220°C fan (gas 9). Take the chicken out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature.
To make the rub, heat a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic cloves, still in their skins, and cook for 6–7 minutes until the skins have blackened and the garlic is soft. Add the fennel and cumin seeds, toast gently for 1 minute, then pour in the ancho chilli flakes. Toast for 10 seconds more, then empty the lot into a small blender or pestle and mortar, slipping the skins from the garlic. Pound or blitz to a paste with the cinnamon, brown sugar and salt, before stirring through the orange juice and olive oil. Rub this all over the chicken pieces.
Toss the onion wedges and potatoes in a large baking tray with
2 tablespoons of the olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes before popping the chicken on top of the vegetables, tossing the whole lot with the excess adobo, the pomegranate molasses and the rest of the olive oil. Roast for 15 minutes in the middle of the oven, then reduce the oven temperature to 190°C fan (gas 6½) and roast for another 15 minutes. Season to taste.
Meanwhile, make the whipped tahini. Simply blitz all the ingredients in a small food processor until the mixture is light and blousy.
Serve the chicken on a large plate in the middle of the table, with the whipped tahini spooned in a circle around the edge of the plate, the chicken in the middle and the whole lot scattered with flat-leaf parsley and a drizzle more of the pomegranate molasses.
Note: If you opt for a whole chicken, add the breasts to the pan 10 minutes after the thighs. The bones will make an incredible stock.
Edited recipe extract from Mexican Table
by Thomasina Miers, published by Quadrille. Available now internationally.
