275: Roasted Paprika Chicken and Saffron Vegetable Rice

Both my cooking and blogging has been rather slack recently, my time being taken up with: work (boo!), running training for the London marathon (boo, it's not gone well) and massages to try to enable to keep on running. Oh and spend far too much time watching Pointless; which I'm enjoying but I'm not sure it's doing either my work or marathon prospects any good.

Finally last weekend I got the required to chance to attempt to cook something new. A roasted chicken is always a good thing. But I didn't wash mash, as sausages and mashages were slated for the next day. So, variety being the spice of life and all I tried for a rice-y roast.

Ingredients:

• 1 Biggish chicken
• Rice
• 2 medium onions
• 2 courgettes
• 3 peppers
• Spices: Saffron, garlic, chilli and paprika

Method:

• Wipe chicken with olive oil (so the spices stick) and dust with chilli flakes, paprika and salt and pepper. Dusting the cavity also. Into the oven at 180c until cooked ~ 1 hour 3/4s in my case
• Have a cup of tea and an episode of Pointless, after which there was about an hour to go for the Chicken
• Return: baste the chicken
• Stick the peppers on a tray at the bottom of the oven and roast them. Then shortly afterwards add the courgettes.
• Chop the onions and set onto a slow fry. Likewise chop the garlic
• Getting towards the end now, set the rice on to cook - adding a pinch of Saffron.
• Cook a cup full of peas
• I wanted both crispy chicken and some colour on the courgettes, so out with  the chicken to rest and then vegetables moved up to the top of the oven and the oven up to 220 (only for the last ten minutes or so; otherwise it would all burn to a cinder)
• Drain rice, stir through veggies. Serve. Grab myself a leg and a wing.
• Happy days

Once again, I'd failed to use enough saffron to make the taste noticeable. I had though used enough garlic, chilli and paprika to give plenty of taste to the chicken.

I enjoyed it hot on the night and it was just as nice the next day having it as a cold rice salad; I think it helped that I'd roasted instead of fried the peppers and courgettes.

Left to my own devices I'd have put mushrooms in this; which I think would have been an improvement. However I was out-voted on the mushroom front 3 v 1. Shame that.


Happy Easter y'all. xxx