We’ve somehow made it through another week in our homes, and I’m gearing up for a weekend that feels…exactly like the rest of the week! But with more cooking.
I’m really getting to know the new “quarantine me” which is like the regular me but a little more unhinged and much more resourceful. I’m relying on a lot of my old introvert tricks, like doing puzzles and reading extremely large books. Right now I’m working through a 736-piece puzzle that’s completely black and oddly shaped (it’s SUPER hard) and I’m 100 pages into my book on Romanoff history, almost at the year 1700! Only about 225 years to go.
But I’m learning new things too. For example, I’ve started taking immense joy in daily lunch preparation for two. This week, we had homemade flatbreads stuffed with sausage, feta spread, olives and peperoncini that I made last weekend but heated up every day. For the accompanying salad, I would raid the fridge for fun condiments and herbs that were looking tired and the freezer for nuts and seeds and put together interesting combinations. It’s a kind of spontaneous food preparation that I hardly ever do and I literally look forward to this all morning.
Another newfound skill is…dealing with pomegranates! The last few times I got tangled up with a pomegranate, I tried the ol’ banging on it with a spoon trick, which did not work, and resulted in what I like to call “murder hands.” As a result, I mostly did not eat them. However, my roommate just taught me that by filling a large bowl with cold water, quartering the pomegranate and then removing the seeds with your hands under the water, you can avoid the mess and it’s actually quite easy to do! I’ve made dishes with pomegranates for the past two weeks, because for some reason my corner market always has them.
If your corner market always has a basket of pomegranates, consider this chicken! It doesn’t take much more effort than your standard roast chicken, but packs a big sweet-and-sour flavor punch with pomegranate and fennel. Serve it with some pilaf or potatoes and whatever vegetables you can get your hands on. I threw together a cauliflower dish with raisins, pine nuts and a dash of vinegar, and some glazed sweet potatoes. When it feels like there isn’t a whole lot to look forward to, a good meal can go a long way.
Ingredients
- 1 4 lb. chicken, butterflied
- Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced, plus 1 garlic bulb, halved crosswise
- 1 fresh bay leaf
- 2 large pomegranates, arils removed
- 3.5 oz. (100ml) pomegranate molasses
- 1/4 cup dry sherry
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 red onion, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds
- 2 thyme sprigs
- 1 fennel bulb, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds, fronds reserved
- 1 oz. (25g) walnuts, roughly chopped
- Salad leaves, to serve
Instructions
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper and lay flat on a large plate. Transfer to the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes, but preferably a few hours, to dry the skin a little.
- Meanwhile, heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan over medium heat and add the onion. Cook for 6-8 minutes, until starting to soften, then stir through the minced garlic and bay leaf. Cook for 2 minutes, then add half the pomegranate arils, the molasses, sherry and sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and gently simmer for 10-12 minutes, until the mixture has thickened and reduced by one-third. Remove and discard the bay leaf, then remove the pan from the heat and blitz the mixture with a hand-held blender until smooth. Pass the sauce through a fine sieve to remove the aril pulp and set aside in a bowl.
- Preheat the oven to 430 degrees F.
- Place the red onion, garlic bulb, thyme and fennel in a large baking dish. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the remaining pomegranate arils, drizzle over 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the butterflied chicken on top of the vegetables and rub with 1 tablespoon of oil. Sprinkle over the fennel seeds, season with salt and pepper, then transfer to the oven and roast for 15 minutes or until the skin starts to turn golden. Remove the dish from the oven and baste the top of the chicken with 2 tablespoons of the pomegranate sauce. Add 1 cup of water to the dish, then reduce the oven temperature to 320 degrees F and roast the chicken for a further 45 minutes.
- Increase the temperature back to 430 degrees F and baste the chicken with 2 more tablespoons of sauce and add another 1/2 cup of water to the dish. Bake for a final 6-8 minutes, until the chicken skin is dark and dry.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, dress the chopped walnuts with a little olive oil and salt.
- Transfer the roast chicken and caramelized fennel and onion to a serving platter and scatter over the remaining pomegranate arils and the dressed walnuts. Serve with the remaining pomegranate sauce, the fennel fronds and a few salad leaves on the side.
Notes
From Islas
