Kitchen magic: Deborah Quinn shares an elegant dinner recipe to impress your family and friends.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Debbie Quinn has a lifelong love of food and cooking, nurtured in her parents’ restaurants and in her own family’s kitchen. Every fortnight she shares her passion and expertise with our readers, bringing her best recipes, tips and tricks to the table.
Deb’s Spanish Chicken and Pearl Couscous
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This is a terrific dish, made with the often overlooked chicken cut — the maryland. You can marinate the chicken and leave it in the fridge for a couple of days, then whip it out for a family meal or guests. Serve it with my pearl couscous and everyone will think you’re a whiz in the kitchen.
Ingredients
8 chicken marylands, skin on, bone in and scored 3 or 4 times to the bone (2kg)
120ml dry white wine
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
½ bunch fresh chopped coriander to garnish
Marinade:
5 garlic cloves, crushed
15g fresh oregano leaves
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
100g pitted green olives
60g capers, plus 2 tbsp of their juices
160g Medjool dates, pitted and quartered lengthways
2 bay leaves
1 tsp sea salt and a good grind of black pepper
Flavour bomb: Everything you need for a perfect marinade.
Method
Place the chicken in a large glass bowl and add all of the marinade ingredients, along with 1 tsp of salt and a good grind of black pepper (leave the wine and pomegranate molasses until later).
Gently mix everything together, cover the bowl and leave in the fridge to marinate for 1-2 days, stirring the ingredients a few times during the process.
Ready to rock: Mix the marinade ingredients with the chicken.
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan-forced.
Spread the chicken marylands out on a high-sided medium baking tray in a single layer skin side down, along with all the marinade ingredients.
Whisk together the white wine and pomegranate molasses and pour over the chicken.
Place in the oven and cook for 20 mins, turn the marylands over skin side up, baste with the pan juices and cook for a further 20 mins until the meat is golden-brown on top and cooked through.
Remove from the oven, transfer everything to a large platter, sprinkle over some chopped coriander leaves and serve.
Spanish sensation: The star of the show is the delicious baked chicken.
Pearl Couscous
Ingredients:
1 x 300g packet of San Remo Pearl Couscous (Italian Style)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
600ml water
1 tbsp Massel chicken stock powder
1 bunch baby spinach
Rind of 1 lemon finely grated
½ cup freshly chopped coriander
200g pistachio nuts, slightly crushed
Method:
Sauté the couscous in the olive oil and butter until slightly golden brown. Add the 600ml of water mixed with the chicken stock.
Bring to a simmer, put the lid on and simmer on the lowest heat for about 16 mins, stirring once. Most of the liquid should have evaporated — if not, cook for another minute or two.
Let it cool for about 5 mins then add the spinach and put the lid back on so the spinach can wilt (it will take a few minutes).
When the spinach has wilted, stir the spinach through, transfer to a serving bowl, stir through the lemon rind and dress with the chopped coriander and lastly the pistachio nuts.
Serve the couscous warm alongside the Spanish chicken.
Coming together: The couscous is the perfect accompaniment to the chicken.
Deb’s tips
Just crush the pistachio nuts lightly with a mortar and pestle.
The chicken dish and the couscous are really made for each other. Make sure to serve plenty of the chicken juices on the plate as this works beautifully with the couscous.
Freshly steamed beans also accompany this dish well and we recently had it with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon from Tallis Wines at Dookie, which went down a treat.
Pomegranate molasses can be purchased from Europa Deli. It is also a really handy ingredient to have in the cupboard to make a great salad dressing. Just whisk 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses, 2 tbsp olive oil, ½ tbsp lemon juice and 1 tsp maple syrup. Drizzle the salad dressing over your favourite leafy green, tomato salad.
All together now: Enjoy your meal with some local wine.
