Farareej Mashri (Egyptian grilled chicken)
Ottolenghi puts it best, 'Everything Diana Henry cooks, I want to eat.' Her recipes tend to be easy to follow but exciting, often inspired by flavours from around the world. And since she's also the author of the acclaimed Bird in the Hand, you know you can trust her chicken recipes. Of course, since I'm always contrary this way, this recipe is actually from another of her books, A Change of Apetite: Where Delicious Meets Healthy.
I don't know if you've noticed but, although my desserts are always delightfully indulgent (as they should be), I naturally lean towards lighter mains and sides. Lately, I've been making this a real focus, trying to move towards a healthier lifestyle. I feel like healthy eating shouldn't mean overly restrictive dieting; I know from experience that it isn't sustainable. The four kilos I might lose on a fad diet are all too easy to regain when I go back to normal eating patterns. To me, it makes more sense to slowly incorporate healthier meals into day-to-day life, thus relinquishing the need to resort to unhealthy alternatives. I usually turn to junk, especially the sugary kind, when I'm stressed or tired or low. But although it satisfies my needs momentarily, I feel worse in the long run. Home-cooked food is almost always the yummiest anyway, and healthy food makes you feel better from the inside out.
So I want to introduce a new series I'm working on: I Crave Health. As always, this will be a mix of original recipes and my cookbook favourites, with all of the fingerlickin' goodness you've come to expect from All Your Cravings. Don't worry if you follow me for my baking recipes, these will stay as they are. It's always someone's birthday, and as you know, I firmly believe it's not a birthday without cake ;)
This recipe for Egyptian grilled chicken is almost ludicrously easy to prepare and wonderfully flavourful and succulent. It's just chicken thighs, a whole head of garlic, the juice of two lemons and some fresh parsley. It doesn't sound like much but whenever I make this for Richa, and indeed she now makes it herself, she always says 'Wow, I could eat this everyday.' I don't think there could be any greater endorsement. Usually, for a quick and light weeknight supper, I just have this over a salad of rocket leaves and halved cherry tomatoes. This time though, I treated myself to the most amazing wrap by shredding the chicken in its juices and then piling it into a wrap with veg I needed to use up (rocket leaves, thinly sliced radishes and wilted spinach) and some mayonnaise in lieu of the yogurt sauce I didn't have ingredients for. So good!
If grilling or broiling isn't an option, you can definitely pan-fry the chicken, about five minutes each side, and the marinade means you don't need to add any extra oil to the pan. Normally I suggest marinating but this time I have to insist - it's totally worth it to make the most of this winner of a chicken dinner. Enjoy!
Farareej Mashri
Recipe from A Change of Apetite. Serves 4.
INGREDIENTS
- 12 garlic cloves, peeled and grated or crushed
- sea salt and pepper
- juice of 2 lemons, plus more if needed
- 6 tablespoons olive oil, plus more if needed
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 8 boneless chicken thighs
- extra virgin olive oil, to serve
METHOD
Mix together all the ingredients except the chicken and extra virgin olive oil and pour this over the chicken in a shallow, non-reactive dish. Turn to coat, cover and put in the fridge for at least two hours.
Preheat the grill to the highest setting. Take the chicken out of the marinade (if you find you don't have a lot, then mix in more oil and lemon and season again). Put the chicken on the grill rack - skin side down first if you've left the skin on - and cook for about six to eight minutes on each side, or until the chicken is cooked through. Baste every so often with the marinade and reduce the heat of the chicken is cheering too much before the meat is cooked through.
Scatter with a little sea salt, drizzle with good extra virgin olive oil (a punchy one) and serve with salad, flatbread and Greek yogurt.
Notes:
If you're cooking for three/only using six chicken thighs, use the same quantities of the marinade. I find I never need the extra virgin olive oil at the end but see how you go!
