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| Honey balsamic chicken with carrots and potatoes |
Please excuse the poor pictures but the iPhone6 really struggles at night
I often make simple fish or chicken grills and roasts in our oven for dinner.
These dinners are very easy to put together. Add some marinade to the meat after you come back from work. Go for a walk. Preheat the oven when you are back. Bung it in the oven and go for a shower. Dinner is ready by the time you are out with a minimal use of effort or oil.
We have got an air fryer recently and that further cuts down on the time required.
The grills taste pretty good. The possibilities are endless. One can use Indian spices like jeera, dhania, mirchi, haldi or mustard or create a yogurt based tandoori marinade and eat the grill with rotis. Or use Asian sauces and make some egg fried rice on the side to have with your mains. Or something more European and eat it with bread. Which brings in a fair of variety to our table without really exerting oneself for it. And, if you want, you can skip the carbs on the side.
I normally don’t put these grill/ roast ‘recipes’ up on the blog as I find them too simple often there are just minor variations in the dish.
However, there is a recent one that I did which has a nine wintry feel to it (though our fleeting Mumbai ‘winter’ is almost a memory by now) and I thought I will share that with you.
I have used balsamic and honey here which gives it a sweetish tangy touch, pepper gives it a touch of heat and the carrots make it a complete meal specially if you want to skip the toast (which I don’t).
Chicken normally takes about 35 min at 200 C in the oven. Fish 10 – 15 minutes.
Ingredients (for 1, multiply if for more)
2 chicken legs, 1 carrot (the pale orange ones, not tried the redder ones) in small cubes, 1 small potato cubed (optional), 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, 1 to 1.5 teaspoon honey, 1 teaspoon sea salt or regular salt, 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs (I had rosemary at home, you can use basil too), 1/4 teaspoon crushed black pepper, 1 tablespoon of chopped ginger and garlic, 1 teaspoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (optional, you can make this oil free too), 1/2 a sliced onion
Cook:
- Preheat the oven for 10 min at 200 C
- Mix all the ingredients together at least half an hour before cooking. Wrap in a cooking oil and put in the fridge.
- When the oven has been pre-heated, put the chicken + stuff, wrapped in a foil, on a baking tray and in the oven
- Let it cook/ roast for 20 min at 200 C. Keep it covered at this stage so that the juices don’t dry out
- After 20 min, take out the tray, unwrap the foil so that chicken etc is now uncovered
- Put a few drops of olive oil on the exposed part of the chicken if you want a glazed effect at then end. Else skip this and you won’t miss much
- Put the uncovered chicken on the foil on the tray back into the oven
- Cook/ grill for 15 min at 200 C and you are done.
- Let the chicken rest for 5 to 10 min so that the juices settle in, switch on the TV and eat
We are re-watching Frasier with our dinner these days and just love the writing.
