Sticky, flavoursome chicken pieces with spices, lemon, garlic and pomegranate molasses. 

We are having a family picnic next weekend as a belated birthday celebration for my eldest daughter Jana, with cousins, aunts, uncles, Godparents and grandparents. The weather in Sydney is superb at the moment with sunny skies and just a hint of refreshing breeze, so I am keen to make the most of the outdoors. 

Picnic food must be portable, extremely tasty, easy to pick up and eat and not require too much pre-picnic preparation. It also needs to be able to quell the rumbling tum, as appetites seem to increase at a picnic especially after a family game of cricket or football. 

I am a person who feels far more comfortable being organised and planning ahead rather than flying by the seat of my pants at the last minute. Therefore, I am currently trialing several recipes in the process of deciding what to prepare and pack for our picnic. 

My ever eager guinea pigs are my children, my husband and my mother. Tonight they sampled a new marinade for chicken, inspired by a Karen Martini recipe featuring pomegranate molasses. This is a thick, syrupy glaze popular in Middle Eastern cuisine that adds a lip smacking flavour to savoury dishes. The resulting chicken dish infused with this new marinade was an absolute hit, with my children going back for seconds and the almost four year old gushing with praise as I tucked him into bed for the night. Any recipe that manages to please the taste-buds of five children between the ages of almost 14 and almost four is a “must make again meal” in my book.

The chicken can either be cooked on the barbecue or in a preheated oven. This evening I tried the BBQ cooking option. Although it added a slightly smokey flavour to the chicken, I found I had to keep a close eye on the process and turn the pieces regularly to prevent them from burning and to ensure they cooked through evenly. This is all well and good if you are able to linger near the BBQ, glass of wine in hand and witty conversation at the ready, rather than dashing in between the BBQ, the children, bath time, story time and everything else in between. When preparing the chicken for our picnic, I am going to instead harness the time saving benefits of my Ilve oven and ROAST the chicken instead because I can lay out the pieces in trays, pop them into the oven and forget about them for the next half hour. 

Spiced Lemon Garlic and Pomegranate Molasses Chicken to serve 8 people as a main meal

Ingredients
4 cloves garlic crushed
1 lemon – juice and finely grated rind
1/2 green chilli, finely grated
3 – 4 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon sumac
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses – if you are using the BBQ method, add this ingredient directly to each piece of chicken (by drizzling it over) just before it is cooked through. If pomegranate molasses is added to the marinade at the start, your BBQ chicken will burn due to the high sugar content in this syrup.

Combine all the ingredients into a deep bowl. Add your chicken pieces and turn over to coat thoroughly. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours, overnight is even better.

When ready to cook, remove from the fridge 30 minutes before and either place on your preheated BBQ plate, turning regularly until cooked through. I used plump chicken pieces from a 1.6 kg chook, so it took 45 minutes over a medium heat for the chicken to cook through to the bone. Alternatively,  preheat the oven to 200 degrees fan forced and roast for 30 minutes. 

We ate the chicken with a side serving of mum’s Beetroot and Orange Salad, leftover Saffron Citrus Pilaf from last night and thick, sour Greek style yoghurt.