Chicken is a great healer, so they say, especially chicken soup. Well, I made soup last week for the sick girl, but fortunately she was at that point of recovery where she was wanting to move on from invalid food and, as we joked, to using a knife and fork!
In London it´s easy to get wonderful vegetables year round and I was inspired by a beautiful little butternut squash that was in the veggie basket. As with most of my dishes, this is simple to put together, then you forget about it for a while, then you eat it and the next day you make another delicious soup. Well, I fancied it, it was raining.
Ingredients for 2 people
- 4 chicken thighs
- 1 large onion cut into about 8 chunks
- 1 small head of garlic (all the cloves peeled)
- 1 small squash, cut into about 10 large chunks (washed but not peeled)
- 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into quarters lengthways
- 4 medium potatoes, washed and cut into 8 pieces each
- Olive oil
- Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- A sprig of lemon thyme (or use ordinary) and a sprig of rosemary
- Half a teaspoon each of dried cumin and hot chili powder (or use sweet)
- A small glass of white wine (or water or stock)
Put all the ingredients into an oven tray, pour over a little olive oil and season then sprinkle over the cumin and chili. Mix it all up to ensure everything is covered with oil and seasoning then pour over the wine/stock and tuck in the herbs.
Cover with foil and cook on a medium heat for about an hour and a quarter. Remove the foil, check that the chicken is cooked through (if not leave for a little longer) then turn the oven up to high and cook for a further 15 minutes until the chicken skin is crispy and the vegetables start to turn brown at the edges. Serve and enjoy!
The next day I peeled what was left of the pumpkin and potatoes, put it all into a pot, added a little more cumin and chilli then covered with water. I bought the dish to a boil and then simmered for about 15 minutes. Then I blended with a stick blender and added about a cup of milk to thin it slightly then warmed through and served.
Chica Andaluza 
Aw, that’s so colourful… what a lovely dish to be “getting better” with 🙂
I’m not a huge chicken fan but when you’re sick there’s nothing better is there? It’s so mild and nutritious and really makes you feel better from the inside!
No chicken, no cauliflower Charles….is it just food beginning with the letter “C”?! No, I think you like cake!!
I’m sure the cure is in the garlic and chilli – both of which (in large quantities) are always welcome in my food 😉
I think you´re probably right – I always use plenty of them too!
I am feeling better already just reading your post!
Oh good – hope you weren´t feeling bad though to star with?!
“Sunshine” is right! This sounds so good, Tanya, and I’m glad to read that your friend was feeling well enough to show a progression in her diet. (Just between you and me, though, I would have been very happy with the soup.) I especially like that you used thighs for this dish. I think they’re so much more flavorful and really take to roasting well. You really have to try to end up with a dry thigh. Breasts are a different matter, altogether. Liked, too, that you made a vegetable broth with the remaining pumpkin and potaoes. Must’ve been delicious!
You know me, waste not want not (as my granny used to say). Have been thinking of you as am trying to make mozzarella…yes, managed to get hold of some rennet! Will keep you posted as to progress…..
Sending cheesy thoughts your way …
Well…it wasn´t mozzarella in the end but that was my fault, but it´s a very nice fresh goat´s cheese that I have now 🙂
You really brought some sunshine to rainy London with this wonderful dish! And the soup too. Like Mad Dog, I’m a great believer in the healing (and preventative) powers of garlic and all the other ingredients must have helped too, although I can’t eat chilli – too hot for me – so I’d use paprika instead. Your friend is very lucky!
Thanks Teleri, garlic does indeed work wonders! In fact, we´re just sorting out our crop which is ready to store away now 🙂
And as the rain falls and falls and falls here I think this is on the menu for tomorrow. Where’s that chicken ….
Oh no, it´s not STILL raining?!
Still still still STILL
Absolute sunshine Tanya! This is one of those meals I could enjoy every night of the week.
🙂 Mandy
Glad you liked it Mandy – have a great weekend!
¡Que rico! Roasted meals are wonderfully cozy and such a great comfort food! We’re moving out next week, so maybe my dream of having an oven again is going to come true!
How exciting -a brand new chapter in your lives (plus oven)!
Just bought a chicken so may joint it and make something like this (half price at M&S so feeling very frugal!). I always wring the last bit of value out of a chicken so there will be soup too.
Not raining at present here in Bewdley but the sky is dark enough to ensure that there is no point putting laundry out to dry. I will spend the afternoon with a book dreaming ‘sunshine chicken’ thoughts.
Oh dear for dreary weather. A dish like this will bring a smile to your face both for the flavour and the frugality! (Big fan too of making the most of everything)
I have tried a similar recipe which has now become one of those ‘go to’ meals when you need a bit of comfort food. I adore it when you can put everything into one oven dish to cook together. Yummy! x
The quick and simple ones are good stand bys…hope the sun shine for you this weekend!
That would perk me right up!
🙂
I love turning one meal into two. i would feel quite smug about making this lovely soup. I am sitting here in my new curtain pinny by the way, it is fantastic! c
AH, glad you liked the recipe and the “curtain pinny”!
What a lovely dinner. I love how it is full of great colours and how it all cooks in the one roasting dish. While it’s in the oven you can sit back and enjoy a glass of wine! xx
Exactly..a perfect way to cook!
Ugh – WordPress is playing games again – this post didn’t show up in the reader.
Sounds like a winner of a recipe, though with our recent weather, we won’t be trying it until it cools off some!
I think I´ve missed a few posts too – strange this are a-happening! Yes, this was a good dish for chilly London but not here in hot Andalucía right now 😉
there’s a sunny soul-satisfying home-cooked meal I’d want to sit down to Tanya! (best eaten on a mountain patio in andalucia!)
You´re right, although this time it was eaten in Best Pal´s kitchen while putting the world to rights…it will definitely be made again (as soon as I can track me down a squash Up the Mountain)!
That recipe would bring sunshine into my life – “knife and fork food” a sure sign of recovery 🙂
and yes I’m having “fun and games” with posts not showing in the reader! Grrrrrr
WordPress can be a pain sometimes! And yes, we joked about moving on from eating with a spoon to using grown up cutlery 😉
This is the kind of food I love to make and eat when I simply cannot be bothered to cook! It’s simple and wholesome and makes me feel like a better wife. I’m lucky that my husband loves it too. Phew!
It´s so easy to do something like this – I still struggle to understand why some people would rather eat “fast food” all the time that put something so simple (and cheap) together!
I know! Don’t get me wrong…I love a good curry takeout from our local and very excellent shop…but takeout pizza or burgers or, heaven help us chicken of a southerly persuasion…eugh! This costs so little, takes so little work and tastes sooooooo good!