Hi, this recipe is from the Guardian's 'Feast' magazine, issue 199 from Saturday 6th November 2021, page 9 by Tamal Ray, find online here. Also, I have made the mushroom trimming pad kra pao from the same issue of 'Feast', if you are interested in looking at that too.
This dish was delicious, I particularly enjoyed the heat of the harissa paste in the sauce. Before this, I'd never tried harissa and so was very pleased with the result. The overall dish reminded me of a tagine, particularly this one that I made a few weeks ago and, if you were looking to bulk this meal out more, you could serve with couscous and make it go further (more meals).
For me, the chicken took much longer than stated to cook: 1hr 20-25mins (my chicken thighs were very slightly frozen still as they hadn't yet defrosted fully, but even so, it was much longer than the suggested 25mins). So, I would suggest factoring in that they are going to take at least 45mins to 1hour to cook and could take up to an hour and a half to 2 hours.
I made this for 4 people and so only used 2x400g tins of chickpeas, everything else was kept the same. This meant we had some leftover chicken (2 thighs because I cooked 6) and chickpeas (about 1/2 of a tin because my sister isn't a fan of chickpeas) afterwards. So, we shredded the chicken off the thighs and mixed it in with the leftover sauce and froze it. We're going to use it as a jacket potato topper, but you could alternatively serve it like a curry: over rice and / or with a naan bread. That being said, served with any carbohydrate it would be nice e.g. rice, mashed potato, pasta or in a wrap. Also, there was enough tomato sauce for the 2x400g tins of chickpeas but I am unsure whether, had I used the suggested 3rd tin, if there would've been enough. So, if making for 6 people, have another tin of tomatoes on hand just in case and add if necessary.
Also, it is very easy to adapt this recipe to be other meals. I think the chickpeas and tomato and prune mixture would make a great shakshouka. Instead of placing it all into a large roasting tin, place them into a large sauce pan and cook for a bit to create a nice mixture. Transfer to a large frying pan (or make the sauce in the frying pan initially but I am unsure about space) and crack in 1 or 2 eggs per person. You may need to cook the shakshouka in batches if there's too much sauce, or make this with leftovers. Serve with some warm, buttery toast.
For any leftover harissa paste, you can use it in place of tagine paste or curry paste in any dishes. Stir it through pasta sauces for extra spice, or google 'harissa recipes' and you're sure to find more dishes to make with it.
Enjoy!
Hazel :)
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Dietary Info:
-Unsuitable for Vegetarians
{Use your favourite vegetarian 'sausages' in place of chicken thighs (2-3 sausages per person). For example: Plant Chef, Linda McCartney, Richmond's or This isn't Pork. Also, see introduction for a shakshouka idea.}
-Unsuitable for Vegans
{See above.}
-Dairy-Free
-Gluten Free
-No Nuts
Prep 5 min
Cook 25 min
Serves 4-6 {I used 2 tins of chickpeas for 4 people (1/2 can per person) and 1 chicken thigh per person. However, I did cook 6 thighs but they ended up getting frozen as leftovers (see intro).}
Ingredients:
-2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes {If you can't find chopped tomatoes, mash/break up the large ones in the bowl, with a knife or blitz with a hand blender or in a bigger blender.}
-100g harissa paste (I use Belazu rose harissa) {I used 90g as that was the size my harissa paste came in. Also, it wasn't rose harissa.}
-1tbsp brown sugar {I used 1/2tsp white sugar as I didn't want it to be too sweet and we didn't have brown sugar.}
-3/4tsp table salt, plus extra for the chicken
-3tsp ground cinnamon
-Juice of 1 lemon {I used a glug of lemon juice from the bottle.}
-1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and sliced
-3 x 400g cans chickpeas, drained (750g) {I only used 2 x 400g tins as I was cooking for 4 people and one of them is not a huge chickpea fan.}
-25 prunes (about 175g), halved {I didn't halve them.}
-6 skin-on chicken thighs (about 1kg), at room temperature
-Olive oil, to glaze {I used extra virgin olive oil, but I also think that chilli oil would be nice to add extra spice to this dish.}
Method:
1: Heat the oven to 220°C / 200°C fan / 425°F / gas 7 and take the chicken out of the fridge. In a bowl, stir the chopped tomatoes, harissa, sugar, salt, cinnamon, lemon juice and spring onions. Scatter the chickpeas into a large roasting dish, {I used a lasagne pan, except this could only fit 5 thighs in it, so I cooked the 6th in it's own tray on the oven shelf below and then mixed in later.} followed by the prunes and the tomato mixture. {I think the idea here is to create layers, chickpeas, prunes, tomato. Mine was a bit more of a mixture as I forgot the prunes and they ended up on top. So, I had to squish them down so they wouldn't burn.}
2: Lay the chicken thighs on top, then brush each one with a little olive oil and a dusting of salt. Roast for 25 minutes, {Need much longer: 45mins minimum, mine took 1hr 20mins to cook (they were slightly frozen though).} until the chicken is browned on top, {and the inside is white, not pink, and the juices run clear. This might be hard to see as the sauce is red so you will have to check if the inside's white or not.} and serve straight from the roasting dish. {I served with some broccoli and peas. My sister, who doesn't like chickpeas, had the chicken, couscous and veg.}
While you're here...
I have a Pinterest for all my recipes, where you can save them to boards for the future and categorise them into different types of recipe e.g Sunday Dinners, picnic ideas etc. My account is @hazellikestocook, or find the link below. Also, I have a whole blog post explaining this in more detail here and https://hazelscookingandbakingblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/pinterest.html.
https://pin.it/5xDvARk - my profile
This recipe:
https://pin.it/QOjS2KG
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