Sophie Grigson pays a visit to the Alan Titchmarsh show to cook up her chicken served with vanilla and white wine.
Ingredients
- 1 free-range organic chicken, about 1.5kg, jointed into 8 pieces
- 3 red or yellow peppers
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 100 ml3½ fl oz dry white wine
- A few thyme sprigs
Spice rub:
- ½ tsp vanilla bean paste, or the seeds from 1 vanilla pod and ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ tsp coarse sea salt
- ½ tsp thyme leaves
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Method: How to make Vanilla chicken with peppers and white wine
To make the spice rub:
For the spice rub, just mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the chicken pieces and turn them in the mixture, massaging it all over them. Cover and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour, but it will taste even better after a full 24 hours.
For the chicken:
Preheat the oven to 220C/ gas mark 7. Halve, core and deseed the peppers, then cut into broad strips. Put the peppers and olive oil in a roasting tin or a shallow ovenproof dish with a little salt (not too much, as some will leach off the chicken), and turn to coat the peppers lightly in oil.
Add the chicken to the tin, distributing the pieces amongst the peppers. Pour over the wine and scatter over the thyme sprigs. Roast for 45 minutes or so, turning over pieces and stirring around twice, until the chicken is cooked through. Check the seasoning.
Serve with rice.
