Pomegranate Molasses Chicken Recipe

One of my purchases at the recent Food Show was Pomegranate Molasses. I know I have seen several recipes recently with this ingredient in them that looked fantastic. I tried a few different options at the food show but this one was the best...pity you can't buy it yet in NZ apart from the food show.

I used smoke garlic from 'The Original Smoke and Spice Company' that I got at the Food Show. I always try to have their Smoked Garlic Salt in the pantry - I use this in lots of dishes!

I served this with mashed potatoes (a family favourite) and a salad with vegetarian option for the non meat eater.

From Nici Wickes, host of World Kitchen on TV3

Pomegranate Molasses Chicken

You will need:
6 chicken breasts (buy the best quality you can afford at the time)
2 tablespoons olive oil
50g butter
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
250mls stock (vege or chicken)
4 tablespoons pomegranate molasses*
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Salt and pepper

What to do:
In a heavy based pot, melt the butter and oil until almost smoking. Gently add the chicken breasts, skin side down. Leave to brown (about 5-8 mins) - try not to fiddle with them until they are well browned! Turn them and brown the other side.
Remove the chicken and set aside. To the remaining juice/fat in the pot add the onion and sauté until it begins to soften. Now add the rosemary and garlic and sauté for a further 3-4 minutes.
Add the stock, pomegranate molasses, sugar and seasoning and bring this to the boil. Once it has come to the boil add the chicken back into the pot.
Simmer for a further 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Check that the seasoning is sufficient, add salt and pepper as required.

Whilst this is cooking, prepare your polenta or mashed potatoes.

Braised Chicken with Bacon, Chorizo and Olives - This one is for Patrick!

Patrick (17) has a few things that he really really likes to eat. I managed to find a recipe that contained three of those things...chicken, bacon and chorizo in the latest (July) Cuisine Magazine. It had a very distinctive smoked paprika influence and the olives were great - Yum!

This meal is one of those 'one pot' wonders that should mean minimal effort and dishes, but did have quite a few steps. It will be a make again one.

Braised chicken legs with tomato, chorizo & olives

Ingredients6 free-range whole chicken legs (with thighs), bone in (1.8kg)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika

½ onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, sliced

80g dried chorizo, sliced

5 rashers (60g) bacon, diced

2 large Agria potatoes (700g), peeled, cut into 1.5cm dice

400g can chopped peeled tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste

12cm sprig fresh rosemarygood pinch of dried thyme

100ml red wine

100ml chicken or veal stock

60g Kalamata olives

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place the chicken legs in a deep oven dish. Add the oil and paprika and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss to coat then arrange the legs so they are skin side up and cook, uncovered, in the oven for 20 minutes.

Add the onion, garlic, chorizo and bacon to the dish then return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.

Reduce the oven to 160°C. Mix the remaining ingredients together in a bowl then add to the chicken, making sure the chicken legs are evenly covered. Cover with foil then cook for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for a further 40 minutes, stirring once so the chicken skin doesn’t become too dark. Remove from the oven, taste and season. Serve with a green salad.

Roast Chicken with Chestnut Stuffing - Recipe

A roast chicken is usually a weekend meal since no one gets home early enough to start it cooking in time for our early dinner time. Today I spent the day at home with a sick little person, so had the perfect opportunity to cook a roast chicken and also to use the last of the chestnuts from a previous week's Ooooby box as part of the stuffing.

The original stuffing recipe I used had chicken livers in it - not at all appealing to me, so in my usual fashion I have modified this recipe to suit us.

The stuffing is great, really nutty flavoured. If you like it quite solid and able to be sliced add an egg to the mixture in the food processor.

Chestnut Stuffing Recipe

3 Tbs butter

1 onion , finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

4-6 slices of bread (I used Vogels or sour dough)

200g chestnuts, roughly chopped

1 Tbs fresh thyme

Handful parsley

zest from a lemon

Melt butter and fry onion and garlic till soft without browning.

Bread, chestnuts, parsley, thyme into food processor, pulse until combined and roughly chopped into pieces about the size of lentils. Add the onion and garlic and pulse to combine.

Stuff inside cavity of chicken and roast.

Now that it is recorded within this blog I can finally throw out the screwed up scrap of paper this recipe was on!