Spicy Harissa chicken with roasted peppers served with Quinoa salad.

Happy New Year to all of you. Hope you have welcomed the new year with a bang. May this year brings all the love, luck and happiness in your life. May all your heart desires and dreams are fulfilled.

This year i did favor on myself by not making any resolution.. hahaha. As they don’t last longer than the first week of January 🙈🙈

But I would love to know about your resolutions. Do share your resolutions, if you made any for 2018, in the comments section below, probably i might just like one of them and try to make it mine as well.

My first blogpost for 2018 is dish inspired by my favorite Chef, Jamie Oliver. I am in love with his style of cooking. So what better way to start a new year with a dish, which inspired by his style of cooking.. Rustic, delicious and big on flavor.

I have made Harrisa chicken roast with roasted veggies along with Quinoa and roasted peppers salad. All three elements of the dish are interconnected.

If you are not aware what Harissa is, then let tell you little about it. Harissa is a rich, hot, spicy and aromatic paste that is very commonly used in middle eastern cooking. It smooth paste made out of hot chilies, garlic and other spices.

So how about getting started with the recipe:

Ingredients:

3 Chicken leg

For marination:

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

6 garlic cloves

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp of dry thyme

1 tsp Cumin powder

1 tbsp paprika

1 tsp chili powder

3 tbsp Harissa paste

1 tsp black pepper powder

2 tbsp Greek yogurt

Salt to taste

Roasted Peppers:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 yellow pepper

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

5-6 Olives

1 large red onion

2 tsp of marination

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp sea salt

Quinoa and roasted pepper salad.

2 cups cooked quinoa

1/2 cup roasted veggies

Salt and pepper for taste

Coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

Wash and pat dry chicken legs with clean kitchen towel. With sharp knife make few deep cuts so that marinate gets into the chicken.

In a big bowl add all the ingredients of marination, except veggies and Chicken and mix well. Check for seasoning, if you need more heat add extra tsp if harissa paste and chili powder. Keep 2 tsp of marination separate for peppers.

Marinate chicken with remaining marinade. Rub in the cuts and massage tge chicken with marinated at least for couple of minutes.

Cover with cling film and leave to marinate in refrigerator for at least 6-8 hours.

When ready to cook chicken, start prepping your veggies. Cut the peppers and onion in bite size pieces and remove the seeds from opives and tear it in half. Spread the veggies in bake tray and marinate it with leftover marinade that we kept aside in small bowl. Drizzle ACV, olive oil and sprinkle sea salt.

Before we roast chicken legs in oven we will sear it on grill pan to colour and grill mark over high heat for couple of minutes.

Preheat oven at 180 degrees.

Place the seared chicken on top of peppers and place it in preheat oven. You can use air fryer as well. Keep basting chicken occasionally to keep it moist and juicy. Bake for 45-55 minutes until chicken is cooked and peppers and onion is all caramelized.

Serve the chicken with roasted peppers and onion.

To make it to balanced meal, I decided make Quinoa salad with roasted veggies.

I used some of the roasted veggies and all the juices at the bottom of tray to and to cooked quinoa. Some coriander leaves and delicious healthy quinoa salad is ready to serve.