Nici Wickes: Chicken with Roasted Grapes

This is the perfect shoulder season meal – not too hearty but not too fresh either, perfect for these interim months between Winter and Summer.

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 6 chicken thigh portions, bone in, skin on
• 500g red seedless grapes
• 6 cloves of garlic
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• ¼ cup stock
• Sea salt and black pepper
• Handful of thyme and rosemary

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C on fan bake.

In a large roasting dish, drizzle over some olive oil and arrange the chicken skin side up. Arrange the grapes around the chicken and scatter over the garlic and white wine.

Season well with salt and pepper and drizzle over a generous amount of oil.

Scatter over the rosemary and thyme, cover with foil and then pop into the oven to roast for about 40-45 minutes or so. Remove the foil and cook for a further 10-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the skin is golden brown and crisp.

Serve with salad and crusty bread.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks. That'd be Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Cook is Nicky Wicks. She's with us this morning. Held
a good morning, Yeah, good morning Jack. Happy Labor Day weekend.
This is a bit of a sort of as a
key milestone on your culinary calendar, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Why do we say, well, just as a sort of
a it's a you know, we're getting into the warmer weather.
Feels like there's no doubt we are sort of fully
ensconced in spring despite the weather of this week.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
You know, it really is and I know terrible weather,
you know, across parts of the country. But I always
think of Labor weekend as being the first in the
season of long weekends. I love that we've had a long,
hot road. It's probably much Niky am I right. I
don't think we have one since Monday. Yeah, to day
makes all the difference. For some reason, even non cooks,

(01:00):
I think, feel as though they've just got a bit
more spaciousness in their weekend. So maybe just slow down
and enjoy cooking rather than throwing something together after work
and all that kind of thing. So I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, and you have the perfect little shoulder season options
for us this morning.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
It's so lovely chicken with roasted grapes. So you just
if this is just a one pan bake off, which
I just love, you can expand it, you can shrink it,
depending on how many people you've got around your table.
I just adore it. I use chicken thigh portions. It's
really great if you can find some with the bone
and skin on. Not always possible these days. Definitely bone

(01:37):
and you can find, but sometimes not the skin on.
So you know, if you can't, that's fine, but it's
lovely to have those those two things, and they're just
a bit more juicy. Two hundred degrees. It's a bit
of a quick bake, this large roasting dish or a pan,
depending on how many you've got. It needs to be
given proof obviously, driddle in some olive oil, and then
arrange your skin, your chicken pieces of skin side up,

(02:01):
and then I've got five hundred grams of red seedless grapes.
I really love a bit of sweet in my savory dishes.
Not everybody does, Jack, Some people don't like that sort
of apricot or date or prune or whatever. But I
love it, and grapes.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Are just perfect. Oh how could you? Who doesn't like this?
Who doesn't?

Speaker 3 (02:18):
I don't know. Some people are like, oh, why that
looks nice?

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Oh yeah, some people. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
So you can arrange the grapes around the chicken. But
I also sort of squish some. I take a sort
of fistful of them and kind of squish them a
little bit so that the juice comes out. Scatter them
around the chicken. Scatter over lots of garlic, six cloves
of garlic, a splash of red or white wine, it
doesn't really matter. Quart of a cup of vat and
quart of a cup of stock. You could go a
little bit of time. You could go a little bit

(02:46):
of rose me either one, lots of salt and pepper
on there, and then cover it with foil, pop it
in the oven, roast it for about forty to forty
five minutes, take the foil off, and then sort of
cook it for another ten or fifteen minutes. And that
just makes sure that the chicken is obviously cooked all through.
But that skin goes beautiful golden brown. But you should
still have some syrup left over from the line and

(03:06):
the stock and the great juices serve it was you know, salad.
Just take the whole pan to the table, serve it
with a lovely bit of salad, crusty bread to mop
up the juices. Oh it's so good. I love it.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, it's amazing. I think this could be a bit
of us this weekend. Actually just a little bit of
just a little bit of extra time. And I love
that him and the little sweet components. You'll be surprised
to hear, Nicky.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Well, you just never know what people these days. Yeah,
get a one pan wonder and I love that on
the weekend because you don't want to spend your weekend
doing dishes. I just want some good sort of comfort
food but not too heavy at this time of the year.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
So there you go.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
That's my next my weekend, just for this weekend.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Very good. Thank you so much, Nicki. Nicky works there
and like I say, the recipe will be excuse me.
On the News Talks heb website.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to news Talks He'd be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeart Radio.