
This lovely dinner party recipe is spicy, but not too spicy that any of your guests will find it too much. Using chicken thighs, a relatively inexpensive meat, this chicken recipe is really tasty but doesn’t take too much time or effort to throw together – making it a perfect indulgent meal you can serve up without any stress.
Pomegranate seeds are added into the side salad to add a really nice sweetness and crunch to the recipe, while rose petals are used to flavour the meat after being blended into a powder and used with cumin, coriander and chilli flakes. For a dish that’s full of flavour that you’ll want to try again and again, give this flavoursome recipe a try.
HOW TO MAKE ROSE PETAL CHICKEN WITH POMEGRANATE
Ingredients
- 1kg free-range chicken thighs, skin on, bone in
- 4tbsp olive oil, plus a little extra
- 3tbsp dried rose petals (see below), blended to a powder
- 1tbsp ground cumin
- 2tbsp ground coriander
- 1tbsp fennel seeds, crushed
- 1tsp chilli flakes
For the salad:
- 250g bulgar wheat, cooked
- 4 preserved lemons, finely chopped
- 110g pomegranate seeds
- 4tbsp chopped fresh coriander
- juice of a lemon
- 3tbsp olive oil
Method
- Put the chicken thighs in a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, mix well, cover and leave to marinate overnight.
- Heat the oven to 180C fan, gas 6. Put the chicken pieces and marinade in a shallow roasting tin, and drizzle over a little oil and some sea salt. Bake for 1 hour.
Mix together all the salad ingredients with plenty of seasoning and serve with the chicken.
Jane Curran is a freelance food editor, stylist, writer and consultant based in Cape Town. Former food director of TI Media & woman&home. All about food, wine (dipWSET), gardening and the Arsenal.