Sweet chilli chicken

Its getting harder to find opportunities to cook now that we only have one son at home and my wife is starting a strict diet.  Its all very well these celebrity cooks blathering on in the press about the importance of cooking family meals but when your family works shifts and everyone eats at different times the reality is that cooking from scratch has to suffer.
I found a recipe in the Daily Mail during the week that I liked the look of but I knew some of the elements wouldn't go down well with everyone so I have amended it to make my own recipe from their initial idea.  Hey guys, this is a Rankine original, almost!  This was a big hit and is definitely a keeper.  The best part, it is so easy and once the initial preparation is over it only takes an hour to cook.  In that way it would certainly satisfy those celebrity chefs and would make a great family meal.  The recipe serves four adults allowing two chicken thighs per person but would obviously stretch further when feeding children who might only eat one thigh each.

SWEET CHILLI CHICKEN

 

 

• 8 chicken thighs
• 3 peppers, deseeded and sliced large (try for the pack of different colours)
• 1 large onion, cut into thick slices
• 1 tbsp. oil (I used chilli oil but go with what you've got)
• 2 oz cashews
• tin of cherry tomatoes, strained and keep the juice
• 4 oz clear honey (5 fl oz)
• 4 tbsp. hot chilli sauce

Preheat your oven to 200c/400f/Gas 6

Toss the chicken, peppers and onions in the oil in a large shallow roasting tin and season

Make sure the chicken is skin side up and place in the oven for 30 minutes

 

Meanwhile pour the honey into a mixing jug, add the chill sauce ( I use Langhams ) and add about 6 tbsp. of the juice from the tomatoes.  Get a fork and whisk it all together.

After the 30 minutes pour the glaze over the chicken and return to the oven for another 15 minutes

 

Scatter over the cashews and cherry tomatoes, give it all a stir keeping the chicken skin side up and return to the oven for the final 15 minutes then voila, serve with white rice or we had easy flatbreads as detailed below.

EASY FLATBREAD

 

• 250g self raising flour
• 250g natural yoghurt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl to make a soft dough
Knead for a few minutes then divide into four
Preheat a griddle pan
Roll out each quarter to a couple of millimetres thick
Cook on the griddle pan for a few minutes each side until browned all over
You'll know when to turn it because bubbles start appearing on the top
You can keep these warm in the bottom of the oven in which you're cooking the chicken whilst you do the others.