Polly Markus: Creamy Harissa Chicken Bake

Creamy Harissa Chicken Bake 

Serves - 4 

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs 

1 cup chicken stock 

1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) potatoes – peeled 

50 g (1¾ oz) butter  

2 cups frozen peas – defrosted 

100 g (3½ oz) feta – crumbled 

1 cup chopped Italian parsley 

Crusty garlic bread 

Harissa Marinade 

1 cup cream 

½ cup harissa paste 

¼ cup lemon juice  

3 garlic cloves – minced 

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) fan bake. 

To make the Harissa Marinade, mix the ingredients in a large bowl. Season with salt and cracked pepper. Add the chicken and leave to marinate for 30 minutes or longer if you have time. 

Pour the chicken stock into the marinade. Stir well. Transfer to a large baking dish and bake for 30–35 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. 

While the chicken is cooking, ready a large saucepan of salted boiling water on a high heat. Cut the potatoes into large bite-size pieces. Boil until tender. Drain. Return the potatoes to the saucepan, add the butter and mash until smooth. Place the lid on to keep warm. 

When the chicken is cooked, gently fold in the peas. Sprinkle with the feta chunks and parsley and season with cracked pepper. Serve with the mashed potato and crusty garlic bread. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
EDB, News Talks EDB. Joining me now is Polly Marcus. Now,
as you know, our resident chef Mike van der Elsen,
he's having a holiday his first and ten years. He
informed us last week, so we sent him off and
wished him well. Polly has just released a new book.
It's called Seriously Delicious, and it is already really good,
so we thought we'd get Polly in to help us
out with the recipe this week. Good morning, Hello, how

(00:33):
are you good to have you with us? Hey, I
flick through this book and I am not I'm not
the cleverest cook around and I you know, you're feeding
a family all the time, and you just sort of
stick to your the recipes that you use quite often,
and then you sort of try and look around for
something tasty but quite easy to whip up as well

(00:54):
to sort of add to the menu list. There is
so much in this book and you don't I'm being
genuine because quite often you get a cookbook and you think, well,
I'll cook three things out of this this book. I
absolutely both carrying my producer and I we're both just going, okay,
we are sorted here. It's brilliant. Who are the recipes
aimed at?

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Oh? I would say anyone that likes cooking. I have
tried to make them easy enough that if you aren't
the beast cook, they're still not They're not scary. There's
not too many recipes. I'm sorry, there's not too many ingredients.
But also big food is like myself that would just
want flavor and somewhat simple but tasty meals.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
So you're known as Miss Polly's Kitchen. This is the
second book.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
It is number two.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, how does it differ from the first if someone
already has the first one?

Speaker 3 (01:42):
I guess, so there's two years apart from the first
and the second book. I think my Palett's probably evolved.
I wanted something with more flavor. I guess I've just
evolved as a cook, and you see what you've done
in the first book and how you do things differently.
So I guess it was more playing up on the flavor,
but also making them not difficult, but also aimed at

(02:04):
people that like to entertain, but easy enough that you
could make them during the week. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
No, I've got a bit of entertaining to do this week,
So you've turned up at just the right point. And
the creamy Harrissa chicken bake. Yes, that's what you're going
to talk us through today.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
I am, and this one is probably one of my favorites.
It's a pretty comforting which is quite nice at the moment.
So it's using Harissa paste, which you can get pretty
much nationwide now in all the international sections. So there's
use some cream. If you're dairy free, you could sub
that for coconut cream. But it's cream, Harrissa paste, lemon
juice and lots of garlic. And I always use chicken thighs,

(02:38):
but if you don't like thighs, you can sub that
for breasts. Manly that if you've got the time, if
you don't worry about it, throw it in a baking
dish with some chicken stock and while that's baking, can
boil some potatoes, mash them with some butter. Once the
chicken's done, fold through some peas, sprinkle some feta, and
that's it.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
And that's it. I tell you what it looks if
you look at the picture, it looks like it's a
lot more complicated than that, which is a great thing.
What you serve what would you serve it with? Would
you just put that on the table.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
I would serve it with the chicken on one plate,
the mashed potato in a separate bowl, and then I
think it has to have some garlic bread on the side.
I have said in the restpeet, if you did want
more vegetables, you could just blanch some beans or broccoli.
But I like to serve things sort of an individual plates,
just to make more dishes for myself afterwards.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
No, I think I think that makes an awful lot
of sense. We're going to put obviously the recipe up
on our website so you'll be able to see all
the details and things we do. Hear a lot more
about products like Harrissa, don't we Yes?

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Why do people love it?

Speaker 3 (03:43):
I think? I mean I personally, it's a little bit spicy.
I just like that it elevates a meal, and it's
just you know, there's so many different spices and herbs
out there, but it's got a combination of I guess
a lot of my favorite spices and herbs, and it's
just it's got a little kick, which I like.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
As you say, most of this is throwing all these
ingredients and with the chicken cooking it up. Is that
something you like to try and do find people with
the recipe where it really is just kind of one
a one dish.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, cock or bake plung it together? Yeah, I think yeah,
I think it's an easy way to cook. And it
just shows it doesn't have to be complicated. If you've
got a couple of pantry staples, mix them together, cook it,
it can come out tasting really good. There's also a
page in there which has got four different easy chicken.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
I saw that as well, which is well because often
it will depend it does depend on when you open
your pantry, what you've got, what you've got in there
and things. What's your favorite pantry staple at the moment?
That's a mean one, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Ah. I am eating a lot of garlic, sorry, not
garlic olives. I just have these jumbo, these huge green
olives and I put them. I don't know, I've got
a thing at the moment, and my rats just everything.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Everywhere and you put them in hole do you slice
them up?

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Honestly depends what I'm making. But I feel like that
like just a simple thing like that can change a dish.
It's take that with some garlic and olive oil, put
that on your chicken and baked some herbs. There we go.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Oh, Polly, really love you to meet you and thank
you so much for the book. It's going to be
covered and you know, you get a lovely cookbook. And
then a week later it's going to be it's going
to be covered in food. My copy of it. By
the end of the week, we will put Polly's recipe
up on our website, news Talks hedb dot co dot
nz and the new book is called Seriously Delicious.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks He'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio