Friday, April 8, 2016

Citrus Pepper Chicken with Quick Pickled Red Onions

I am currently working on a project that sees me up in Manchester most days of the week. With a lull in work this week I was able to come home late the other night and actually eat home cooked for a few days (crazy how excited that makes me!)

Having a glut of citrus in the kitchen from last weekend, I played the "Get Gerry To Pick A Protein" game (the closest I can get him to naming what he wants for dinner!) and DING-DING-DING we got winner winner chicken dinner!

So I played around with the cupboard and came up with a nice marinade, and decided it needed some zing, so whipped up these awesome pickled onions that I have been making for years and so really should share with you lot!

So without further ado....come on down!

Citrus Pepper Chicken with Quick Pickled Red Onions

For the chicken:
Juice of 3 limes
Juice of 3 lemons
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon of lemon pepper (or use more black pepper)
1 teaspoon of salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
8 skinless chicken thighs (I like them with the bone in)

For the Pickled Onions:
3 large red onions, thinly sliced
350ml of cider vinegar
2 star anise
2 bay leaves
8 peppercorns
8 coriander seeds
1 tablespoon of caster sugar

For the chicken: Combine the juices, oil, peppers, salt and garlic in a ziplock bag and shake well to mix. Toss in the chicken, mix well and refrigerate overnight or for at least 2 hours (mix everything around every so often to make sure it is well marinated). When ready to cook, heat a grill pan over high heat and cook the chicken for about 3 minutes each side to get nice char marks, then place them on an oven tray and roast at 180 degrees for 10-15 mins to cook through.

For the pickled onions: Put the sliced onions in a colander and pour over a kettle of boiling water (I usually do this three times to really soften the onions). Sterilise your pickling jars (I like the lazy way of running them through the dishwasher on a hot cycle with no detergent). Bring the vinegar and other ingredients to a simmer for 10 mins, and  fill your pickling jars carefully with the onions, then pour in the vinegar mix (for me this does two 400ml jars) putting the whole herbs on top of the jar at the end. Seal and stick somewhere cold and dark.

The onions will keep for two weeks after opening in the fridge, or up to six months if unopened.

Serve with a good dollop of the lush red onions, and some sliced avocado, tomatoes and a wedge of lime (I just had some zucchini to use up as shown in the photo above!)

Serves 4 (or 8 if you are only eating one thigh!)

Nutritional Info (this approximate is according to MyFitnessPal)
Per Thigh: 109 calories, 9 grams of protein, 7 grams of fat, 3 grams of carbs (sneaky bastards get in everywhere), 1 gram of sugar and 3 grams of iron

Not calculated the onions - you only use a fork full and this makes about 4 cups!

Note: the leftover chicken, shredded, mixed with some onions and placed into a baby gem lettuce leaf made a very nice leftovers lunch for me today!











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