Lunch in May

This recipe is something I multiplied up several times over when I had friends with children coming to lunch and I wanted to cook something that both adults and children would like. It also had to be incredibly easy because I wanted to focus on preparing the accompanying Jersey new potatoes and salad and getting the English asparagus and hollandaise sauce just right.

Orange-Glazed Chicken with Coriander
Serves 4 people or 2 very greedy people.
4 chicken joints (quarters)
2 heaped teaspoons whole coriander seeds
4 tablespoons of really good coarse cut Seville orange marmalade.
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 teaspoon lemon Juice
Salt and freshly-milled black pepper

Pre-heat oven to gas mark 5, 375 °F (190°C).

First crush the coriander seeds finely in a pestle and mortar, or grind them in spice grinder liquidizer attachment if you have one, then mix them with the marmalade, garlic and lemon juice.

Skin the chicken joints and place them in a roasting tin. Then make several cuts in the flesh, using a sharp knife, and rub salt and freshly-milled black pepper into them. Next spread the marmalade mixture all over the chicken joints and into the cuts and bake the chicken on a high shelf for about 40-45 minutes. When I did it I used chicken drumsticks and chicken thighs and I didn’t bother to skin them but needed to cook them for longer partly because I had two full roasting tins of chicken joints which I needed to rotate from top to middle shelf and also to make sure that the chicken skin had a yummy bronzed, crispy sticky finish to it.

Finally, don’t reveal the recipe to your guests, it tastes as though you’ve spent hours developing this most delicious, subtly flavoured dish and they will enjoy it all the more being kept in ignorance.