Baked Chicken Thighs

Dinners that can be bunged in the oven are always a god send - freeing up your time to do something more useful. So these were a bit of a revelation, spurred on by a mooch around Wellcome for something for dinner when I happened across some free-range chicken thighs.

Chicken thighs are cheap and very flavoursome - two big ticks in my book and makes a change from bland breast. Also, I was inspired by the kind of family cooking my Mum used make which involved a one dish in the oven, hearty type affairs. I rarely bake main meals during the week (firing up my oven used to be a bit of an issue) and the gas hob is great for fast meals, so it has been a long neglected cooking method that I am about to revive.

Give your chicken thighs a rinse under the tap and pat dry with some kitchen paper.
Cut a large peeled onion (red or white) into wedges.
Put the chicken and onion into a ceramic oven dish and add a few tablespoons of soy, and inch of finely chopped fresh ginger, a few cloves of mashed garlic, a crumbled star anise, 1/2 a heaped tablespoon of honey.
Mix with your hands, getting the mixture into all the creases of the chicken bits.
Bake at 190 for 20 mins until the thin edges are brown and a bit crispy.
When they are done, remove to a separate bowl and de-glaze the dish to make a little bit of shiny runny sauce to drizzle over the rice and chicken.

I serve these with brown rice and steamed greens such as broccoli or pak choi. A little chopped spring onion either stirred into the rice or sprinkled onto the chicken when serving adds to the presentation.

A note on brown rice: I use a brown long grain and wild rice mix (which you can buy quite easily) for a bit of texture and cook it in bouillon for a little flavour - it makes it less of a hardship.