- 300g brown basmati rice
- 2 onion
- 2 red pepper
- 2 chilli
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 4 blood oranges
- 4 chicken thighs & 2 chicken drumsticks
- 1 cucumber
- 500g cherry vine tomatoes
- 100g sweet salad mix
- 8 tsp olive oil
- 100ml cold water
- Sea salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 300ml boiling water
- Baking tray
- Food processor (optional)
- Griddle or frying pan
- Small pan with a lid
- Measuring jug
- 1.
Heat your grill to its highest setting. Tip the rice into a bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside to soak. Peel the onion and chop into 8 wedges. Slice the red pepper in half and scoop out the seeds. Pull the stalk from the chilli.
- 2.
Line a baking tray with foil. Set the onion, pepper and chilli on it. Drizzle the onion wedges with 2 tsp oil. Drop on 1 unpeeled garlic clove. Grill for 4-5 mins. Turn the chilli over and grill for another 4-5 mins till everything is charred. Meanwhile, heat your oven to 220°C/Fan 200°C/Gas 8.
- 3.
Pop the charred pepper halves and chilli into a bowl and cover with a plate. Leave for 5 mins to cool, then carefully peel off the blackened skin (don’t worry if some charred skin stays attached). For a less spicy dish, halve the chilli and scrape out the seeds and white bits. Carefully squeeze the grilled garlic from its papery skin.
- 4.
Put the pepper, chilli, garlic and onion in a food processor. Add 1 tsp oregano and 1 tbsp red wine vinegar. Squeeze in the juice from 1 blood orange. Add 100ml cold water. Season and blitz. No food processor? Finely chop the veg and stir with the vinegar, orange juice and water to make a chunky piri piri sauce. Set aside.
- 5.
Rub 1 tsp olive oil into each piece of chicken and season with salt and pepper. Warm a griddle or frying pan till it’s hot. Add the chicken, skin-side down, and fry for 3-4 mins till the skin is crisp.
- 6.
Transfer the chicken to a roasting tin, skin-side up. Spoon over the piri piri sauce. Cut the remaining blood orange into 8 wedges and nestle them around the chicken. Roast for 40 mins till the chicken is cooked through.
- 7.
Meanwhile, fill your kettle and boil it. Peel the remaining garlic clove. Drain the rice. Tip into a small pan. Add 300ml boiling water and drop in the peeled garlic clove. Cover and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down. Simmer for 25 mins till the water is absorbed and the rice is tender. Take off the heat. Set aside, lid on, for 5 mins to finish cooking. Dig out the garlic clove and squash it. Stir it back into the rice.
- 8.
Chop half the cucumber. Halve the cherry tomatoes. Pop into a bowl with the salad leaves. Dress with 2 tsp oil and some salt and pepper. Toss to mix. Serve the chicken with the blood orange piri piri sauce, along with the garlicky rice and salad, and the roasted orange wedges on the side for squeezing.
- Tip
Get ahead
If you have time you can make the blood orange piri-piri sauce up to 3 days ahead, and store it in the fridge ready to pour over the chicken before you roast it. Make the sauce up till the end of step 4, either blitzing it in a food processor or chopping and stirring it together. Transfer to a bowl or tub, cover and store in the fridge, ready to use. - Tip
Cuketails
Your leftover cucumber half will keep in the fridge for a couple of days. Add slice of it to jugs of water or elderflower cordial to add a delicate cucumber flavour to them, or as a garnish for your G&T instead of the usual ice and a slice.