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 