Marinate the raw chicken in aromatic ingredients
The finished product – moist and flavoursome

This evening’s dinner was suburb – Chicken with Vino Cotto, Lemon Steamed Spinach and Roasted Winter Vegetables. The entire meal was succulent, fragrant, flavoursome and plentiful courtesy of my mother’s home cooking skills and inspired by one of Maggie Beer’s “chook” recipes from her cookbook, Maggie’s Kitchen. 

Maggie Beer recommends using chicken thighs and chicken legs and also includes almonds. Mum omitted this latter ingredient due to my allergy and used a combination of chicken Maryland (thighs and drumsticks attached) and chicken supremes (breast and wing attached) both on the bone. Cooking meat on the bone imparts an extra burst of flavour and moisture to the overall dish. Plus, it is lip smackingly delicious to pick up a piece at the end of your meal and nibble at those last few sweet morsels of meat still clinging to the bone and cartilage. 

With the addition of the roasted vegetables (even better with a dollop of Greek style yoghurt) and lemon steamed spinach, this meal had all the food and vitamin groups covered in a far tastier form than a multivitamin pill. 

Chicken with Vino Cotto or Balsamic to generously serve 8 adults

Ingredients
4 chicken marylands
4 chicken supremes (or you can just use the Maryland cut if easier to source)
zest of 2 lemons, peeled in strips with a vegetable peeler
5 bay leaves (Mum used dried ones)
2 long stalks fresh rosemary (remove the leaves and discard the woody stalks)
1/4 stick cinnamon
extra virgin olive oil
40 g unsalted butter
sea salt to taste
1/4 cup vino cotto or balsamic vinegar (Mum used a combination of both)
16 green olives (Mum used the Sicilian variety)
1/2 cup plump raisins
1/4 cup salted capers rinsed and drained under running water
chopped flat leaf parsley to serve

At least 1 hour prior to cooking, marinate the chicken in a bowl with the lemon, bay leaves, rosemary, cinnamon and a slug of olive oil. Mum mixed this up just after breakfast and left it in the fridge for 6 hours, removing it about 30 minutes before baking to bring to room temperature. 

Maggie’s recipe roasts the chicken at 180 degrees. However, mum wanted to put the dish of Roasted Winter Vegetables into the oven at the same time as the chicken. The vegetable dish consisted of 8 peeled, pink skinned potatoes, 350 g pumpkin and 1 sweet potato all chopped into large 4 – 5 cm pieces, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt and black pepper. Therefore, the oven was preheated to 200 degrees fan forced. 

Prior to placing the chicken in the oven, heat the butter and a splash of olive oil in an ovenproof dish (Le Creuset is ideal as it can be used on the stove top to sear as well as in the oven). Working in batches, season the chicken with sea salt and gently fry the pieces until each one is a light golden colour all over (about 10 minutes). Remove the chicken to a clean plate or dish. 

Deglaze the pan with vino cotto/balsamic over a high heat. Add the olives, raisins and capers. Return the chicken to this pan. 

Squeeze over the juice from the two lemons used for rind and place the whole lot in the oven for about 30 – 40 minutes or until golden and cooked through. The actual cooking time depends on the size of the chicken pieces used. Mum used fleshy pieces freshly cut from a size 18 chook. *The vegetables should go in at the same time as the chicken.

Just before serving sprinkle parsley over the chicken. While the chicken is resting quickly cook the Lemon Steamed Spinach.Simply drizzle half a tablespoon of olive oil in a deep frypan and add the washed, trimmed leaves of a whole bunch of spinach. Squeeze over the juice of a lemon, sea salt to taste and clamp on the lid for about 5 minutes. Gently lift into a serving dish when wilted and ready. 

To serve, spoon a little of the pan juices and olives over each person’s portion of chicken along with the vegetable side dishes and yoghurt.