Our resident home cook LYNN BAIN learns some ‘hacks’ from her granddaughter and shares them here with a tasty chicken dish.
I was cooking with my 10-year-old granddaughter recently when I told her about a handy hint to make sure the particular recipe worked.
With a sigh and rolling of the eyes that only a 10-year-old can achieve, she put her arm around me and said, "Grandma, that isn’t known as a hint any more, it is called a hack”.
So, here you are: two handy hacks for this glazed chicken recipe.
Handy hack one: you can use whatever vegies you have to hand, such as spinach leaves, asparagus, mini cauliflower steaks or Asian greens.
Handy hack two: either salt-reduced soy sauce or tamari is perfectly okay to use instead of soy sauce. Tamari is a gluten-free Japanese sauce made from soy and rice.
GLAZED CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES
INGREDIENTS
1 chicken, jointed
3 tbsp cooking oil
1 onion, peeled and sliced
6-8 small potatoes, peeled and sliced
sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced
500g pumpkin, peeled and thinly sliced
6 or more Brussel sprouts, finely shredded
Glaze
2 tbsp cooking oil
1-2 tbsp honey
3 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari)
1 clove garlic, finely grated
Preheat your oven to 180°C.
Step 1: Oil a suitably sized baking dish (this will help with clean-up later).
Step 2: Layer the sliced potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, onion and Brussels sprouts in the bottom of the baking dish. Pour some of the oil over the top of the vegetables.
Step 3: Place the chicken pieces in a single layer on top of the vegetables. Pour the remaining oil over the top.
Step 4: Place the dish of chicken and vegetables into the oven for about 40 minutes (depending on the size of your chicken pieces).
Step 5: Gather the glaze ingredients.
Step 6: Combine the four ingredients for the glaze.
Step 7: While the chicken and vegetables are cooking in the oven, whisk the glaze ingredients together until well combined.
Step 8: At the end of the first 40 minutes of cooking time, remove the baking dish from the oven and place on a heatproof surface. Then, using a pastry brush (or similar), generously brush the glaze mixture over the top of each chicken piece. Return the chicken and vegetables to the oven for a further 10 minutes. Then repeat the process of removing the baking dish from the oven, brushing the chicken with the glaze and then returning to the oven for a further 10 minutes. Continue to do this until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is cooked through.
Step 9: The finished dish ready to serve.