Caribbean chicken, rice & beans and slaw

Ingredients

Serves 4

For the chicken

  • ½ onion
  • ½ tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
  • 4 tbsp oil
  • ½ Scotch bonnet chilli, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp ground paprika
  • ½ tsp allspice
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • pinch freshly grated nutmeg
  • 4 chicken thighs, skin on, bone in
  • 200ml chicken stock
  • 4 tbsp honey, to glaze
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Step by step

  1. Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas Mark 5
  2. Chop the onion very finely. Put it into a shallow dish large enough to hold all the chicken thighs. Add the coriander, cumin, thyme, garlic, parsley, oil, chilli, paprika, allspice, soy sauce and nutmeg and stir well. Add the chicken to the dish and spread brush the marinade all over the chicken.
  3. Roast the chicken for 25–30 minutes turning at least once. Pour over the honey and turn up the heat to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6 and cook for a further 10 minutes, or until the chicken is browned and completely cooked through.
  4. Remove the chicken from the oven, carefully pour off the juice into a small pan. Pour in the stock and reduce again until you have a gravy consistency. Keep the chicken warm.

 For the rice and beans

  • 1 tin of red kidney beans or black-eyed beans, drained
  • 1 tsp thyme (fresh if possible but dried is fine too)
  • 250 g rice – ideally basmati or jasmine (but long grain is fine)
  • 1 scotch bonnet chilli, leave whole, do not chop at all
  • 1-2 spring onions, leave whole
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 400ml / 1 tin of coconut milk
  1. Wash the rice 2-3 times in cold clean water until some of the starch has been removed, then put the rice in a saucepan and cover with water (about 1 cm over the rice) and cook gently, adding a small amount of water if required.  Add the whole scotch bonnet chilli and spring onion after about 4-5 minutes.  Cook the rice until just soft – the water should have evaporated.
  2. Add the coconut milk, beans, salt and thyme, stir gently for 3-4 minutes.
  3. Remove the chilli and spring onions before serving.

For the slaw

Choose 3 or 4 vegetables/salad items that can be eaten raw. Things that work well include onion, white cabbage, red cabbage, cucumber, carrot, beetroot, courgette. And you could add tinned sweetcorn if you like too. You’re aiming for a colourful combination of things you like or are happy to try

  1. Either grate the vegetables/salad or thinly slice them with a potato peeler and put them all together in a bowl
  2. Mix a small pot of natural yogurt with the juice of half a lemon or lime (which equals about a tablespoon of bottled juice) and add some herbs if you want to or just a little bit of salt and pepper and mix it well into the vegetables or salad.