Summer Chicken red pepper, tomato, one pot dish.
In the summer, if you’re like me as much as you enjoy cooking, it’s too hot to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, this recipe is really easy. It takes about five minutes to pass. I will be on the table 35 minutes later!
It combines the classic flavours of summer tomatoes, red peppers, red onions, and basil with chicken you can always prepare it in the morning put it in the fridge and cook it when you get home from the beach or a day in the garden.
Even in the summer I sometimes want a hot meal rather than salad, however if you cook this the day before and then take the chicken off the bone and cut it up into the tomato and butter beans it makes the most wonderful salad as well.
Ingredients serves two people (however this recipe can easily be doubled up)
Two chicken bottom quarters (that’s a leg and thigh together) you can use chicken breasts but they tend to get a bit dry
One 410 g of butter, beans, drained and rinsed
Three cloves of garlic chopped or crushed
Two red peppers washed and cut into four
Two large plum tomatoes halved if you haven’t got tomatoes use whatever tomatoes you have but you want to make sure that you have about a teacup full of tomatoes once chopped or cutting in half
A large bunch of basil leaves torn never use a knife on basil you tear it to bring out the flavour
One red onion cut into eight
10 black or green olives, preferably without the pips (optional)
2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
Half a teaspoon of good quality sea salt
Half a teaspoon of black pepper
Half a teaspoon of paprika
Half a glass of white wine leftover (optional) or half a glass of water not so much of!
Method
Preheat your oven to 220 C gas mark seven if you’re using a fan of 200 C.
For this recipe it’s better to use a metal oven improve dish or a dish that can go both on top of the cooker and in the oven. I have a good old-fashioned enamel baking dish with a lid just like my grandma used to use that I use all the time for cooking chicken.
Place the onion, red peppers, and tomatoes in the bottom of your baking dish with half of the basil
Season the chicken with salt, and paprika all over then place the chicken on top of the vegetables sprinkle the garlic and olives if you’re using over the chicken.
Drizzle the olive oil over the chicken, and place in the hot oven.
Roast chicken for 25 to 30 minutes until the chicken is golden brown and it has a crispy skin but you don’t want it to overcook.
Once it’s cooked, remove the chicken and the pepper tomatoes and set them aside for a minute in a dish, leaving any juices from the chicken and the peppers and tomatoes in the baking tin.
Place it in over a low flame, or if you use the electricity over a very low low light, and add the wine or water staring it well to glaze your baking tin and take all the wonderful juices and sticky bits of the bottom, then add the Butterbean And stairwell so they get all the flavours from the bottom of the baking tray. Cook them through for a minute or two so the alcohol evaporates and all the flavours mingle I didn’t nearly all the basil just keeping two leaves for serving.
Place the chicken and the vegetable back into the pan so that all the flavours mixed together then serve,
You can serve this as it is a light summer flavoured one pot meal,
Or if you want to introduce more carbohydrates, serve it over long grain rice, with a glass of your favourite white wine.
This is a kind of dish you can convert into a salad easily. By taking the chicken off the bone, cutting it up with the vegetables, olives and beans chilling it and serving it cold as a salad.
Hint if you are using olives in the dish, reduce the amount of salt that you season the dish with. If you don’t like olives, you can substitute them for capers. Enjoy!