You couldn’t really get a much simpler supper than our exotic za’atar chicken – effectively, chicken thighs rubbed with honey and the fabulous spice mix, za’atar and roasted in a vermouth sea.
This recipe is just a touch more exotic and might take a couple of seconds longer incorporating as it does both orange and cinnamon, and including a yoghurt sauce.
Serve this with an apricot and mozzarella salad and some warm crusty bread.
For a post about za’atar, follow this link.
Slightly more exotic Za’atar chicken with a yoghurt sauce
Serves – 2
Ingredients
- 4 chicken legs – about 400g/14 oz total weight
- 60ml/¼ cup olive oil
- 1 lime
- 1 cinnamon stick (make sure it really is cinnamon… not cassia)
- 2 tsps za’atar
- 2 fat garlic cloves crushed with one tsp smoked salt
- 1 red onion, peeled and chopped fine
- 120ml/½cup yoghurt
- 1 tbsp walnut oil
- 1 small bunch (25g/1 oz) flat-leaved parsley
Instructions
- Measure out the yoghurt in a smallish bowl or jug.
- Divide the crushed garlic into two, and add half of it to the yoghurt.
- Take the zest off half the lime and add it to the yoghurt. Cut the lime in half and make juice out of the zested half. Add 2 tsps of that juice to the yoghurt. Put the rest of the lime juice in another, larger, bowl.
- In this larger bowl put the za’atar, the olive oil, the rest of the garlic, the cinnamon stick (broken in two) and the onion. Add the chicken drumsticks and coat well.
- Add the walnut oil to the yoghurt, and snip the parsley into it.
- You can now put both, covered with cling film, in the fridge for a day or so.
- When you are ready to cook, pre-heat the oven to 210°C and line a roasting tray with foil and oil it.
- Place the chicken, skin side up on the foil, cover with the rest of the marinade, slice the rest of the lime and wedge between the chicken legs, together with the cinnamon sticks.
- Roast in the oven for 35-40 minutes – the chicken should go golden but the skin won’t crisp – check after 30 minutes for the colour. The onion and lime slices should be caramelised but, obviously, they should not be burnt!
- Serve, garnished with the cinnamon sticks, the caramelised lime slices, and the yoghurt sauce.
