Spring
Recipes
Meat
Chicken with spices and wild garlic
When I’m in the countryside during spring, I always make sure I have a look for wild garlic. It appears in the woods in April and continues into May, first as lush green leaves and then the pretty white flowers bloom.
This recipe is a sort of tandoori chicken marinade – the garlic giving the flavour and the yoghurt tenderising the meat. I don’t have a tandoor oven (sadly) so I tend to spatch-cock the bird so it marinades better and cooks faster.
Serves 4.
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts
- 4 cardamom pods
- pinch of saffron
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 2 large handfuls of wild garlic leaves, washed
- 100ml plain yoghurt
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Lightly crush the cardamom pods and release the little black seeds inside, discard the green husky outer layer and crush the black seeds.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- In a dry, hot pan, lightly toast the saffron and cumin seeds then crush in a pestle and mortar with the cardamom. Add the ground turmeric and mix well.
- In a food processor, finely chop the garlic leaves. Add the spices and yoghurt and blend well.
- Season with salt and pepper then smear all over the meat. Cover and leave in the fridge to marinate for at least an hour.
- Pour a little olive oil over the skin and roast for 8-10 minutes, skin side up, until just cooked through.
- Serve sliced with rice or potatoes
Comments