Simple but delicious

This week's recipes are all about family favourites - easy, warming recipes guaranteed to gain you accolades.

Knowing how to make something delicious that everyone loves is such a simple way to feel valued and empowered.

Of the many things Annabel has taught Rose over the years, this concept has always been at the centre of it all - how to make foolproof recipes that work, every time. We want to set you up for success so that you can confidently get dinner on the table and know it’s going to be delicious.

With this in mind, we have a gorgeous Persian One-Pot Chicken and Rice recipe that might just become your new favourite chicken dinner - although we can’t guarantee you won’t be fighting over the crisp outer edges. Cooking a whole chicken in the rice infuses the dish with the most wonderful flavour, and the rice gets an almost tahdig (crispy Persian rice)-like crisp outer layer that takes this to the next level.

There is something so generous about cooking a whole bird that makes it feel like a special occasion or cozy family dinner. Growing up, we always had a chicken on a Sunday evening, so for us, this will always be a meal of comfort and love.

Recipes like this are when a big cast iron pot/Dutch oven comes into play. The great thing about heavy-duty pots like this is they age well and due to being virtually indestructible, are excellent second-hand. Le Creuset and Staub are the old-faithfuls. Ironclad, a Kiwi brand, also does a Dutch oven if you’d like to buy locally.

Our second recipe is for a delicious Orecchiette Ostuni with broccoli and sausage - a classic southern Italian pasta that has so much flavour and is wonderfully moreish. Finding the perfect balance between healthy and tasty, it’s everything we love about a simple pasta recipe.

As with all simple recipes, use the highest-quality ingredients you can find. Especially the olive oil, parmesan, and pasta (bronze extruded is best, ideally from Italy). You may baulk at the amount of broccoli used here - trust us, it is delicious and a fabulous guilt-free way to enjoy a big bowl of pasta.

This is a great way to make a little bit of meat go a long way. Learning to be resourceful in the kitchen is such a useful way to reduce food waste, lower food costs, and maximise flavour. If possible, use a coarse, high-quality pork and fennel sausage. Or, use best-quality pork sausages and add ½ a teaspoon of fennel seeds with the garlic.

We love using orecchiette (little ears) for this recipe, as the sausage meat and broccoli nest perfectly in the little dimples of the pasta. Use gluten-free pasta to make this gluten-free and make sure that your sausages are gluten-free too.

We hope these tasty recipes bring you joy and comfort in the coming weeks (and lots of compliments).

Happy cooking everyone!

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Exciting new recipes, meal plans, and tips and tricks to help make you a better, more resourceful cook. Delivered to your inbox every Sunday.

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Persian one-pot chicken and rice

This fabulous one-pot meal is so wonderfully comforting and delicious, sure to soon become a family favourite. We can’t guarantee you won’t be fighting over the crisp outer edges.

Serves 4

Ready in1 hr 30 min

DF GF RSF

Ingredients

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 free-range chicken (1.3kg)

1 large brown onion, diced

1 large thumb ginger, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

½ cup vermicelli pasta, orzo, or gluten-free equivalent (optional)

1 tsp ground turmeric

Freshly ground black pepper

1½ cups basmati rice, rinsed and drained

2½ cups water

Juice of 1 lemon

To serve

¼ cup chopped soft herbs such as parsley, mint, dill or coriander

¼ cup toasted pine nuts or chopped almonds

¾ cup Greek yoghurt (optional)

¼ cup pomegranate arils (optional)

Method

Preheat your oven to 200ºC fanbake.

Use paper towels to pat the chicken dry and season generously with salt inside and out.

Heat oil in a large heavy ovenproof pot that has a lid (you will use this later) over medium heat.

Place the chicken breast-side down in the pot and brown for 3 minutes. Carefully use tongs to turn the chicken over to brown the other side. (If the chicken skin sticks, continue cooking until it has crusted and is easily turned without tearing the skin.) Cook for another 3 minutes. Carefully use tongs to remove chicken from the pot and set aside.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and add chopped onion and a pinch of salt. Cook until softened and translucent (6-8 minutes). Mix in the chopped ginger and garlic and cook until softened without browning (2 minutes). Stir through vermicelli noodles or orzo, if using, and cook until golden (2-4 minutes). Stir in turmeric, black pepper and lemon zest and allow to sizzle for a few seconds before stirring through the rice.

Push rice to the edges of the pot to make some space for your chicken, and place chicken in the middle of your pot.

Carefully pour water around the chicken, using a spoon to ensure that all the rice is evenly submerged under the water. Squeeze lemon juice over the chicken. Cover with your pot lid and bake in your preheated oven for 1 hour.

Remove from heat and leave with the lid on to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Sprinkle with parsley and nuts and serve family-style, carving the chicken in the pot. Accompany with yoghurt and pomegranate, if using.

Notes

• If you don’t have a big ovenproof pot with a lid, you can also make this in a heavy deep-sided roasting dish with a layer of tinfoil to cover and seal, or a large lidded casserole dish (brown the chicken first as per the recipe).

• We browned the chicken beforehand to ensure the skin gets nice and golden brown, and to get some of those lovely browning flavours in the rice. We’ve served this with pomegranate and yoghurt, which you can skip if you’d prefer to keep things simple.

• Leftovers keep well in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days, reheat before eating. To make this gluten-free, use gluten-free orzo, or leave it out entirely.

• For more fibre, add in a can of drained rinsed chickpeas when you add the rice. We love serving this with a fresh green salad or some sauteed broccoli.

Orecchiette ostuni

Serve s4-6

Ready in20 min

GF RSF

Ingredients

400g orecchiette pasta or gluten-free equivalent

2 heads broccoli, peeled and cut into tiny florets

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

4 high-quality coarse pork sausages, removed from casings

4 cloves garlic, chopped

½ tsp fennel seeds (optional)

½ tsp chilli flakes (optional)

Packed ½ cup finely grated parmesan

½ finely chopped parsley

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

Bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil.

Add pasta and cook according to the manufacturer’s instructions. In the last minute of cooking add the broccoli. Once cooked, drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water. Set aside.

While that is cooking, heat olive oil in a large deep pan over medium-high heat. Crumble the sausage meat into the pan (or press small nuggets out of the sausages while they have their skins on).

Cook until lightly browned, using the back of a wooden spoon to break the meat apart and into a fineish crumb (5 minutes). Stir in the garlic, fennel seeds and chilli flakes, if using. Cook, stirring until garlic has softened and spices are aromatic (1-2 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.

Once pasta and broccoli are cooked, add these to your pan.

Add parmesan, pepper and a splash of the reserved pasta water, stirring to emulsify (you need to stir quite a bit, you want the pasta water to bind with the fat from the pork and melt the parmesan until everything is creamy and delicious - add more pasta water as needed, we used about ½ a cup). Mix in the parsley and lemon zest and finish with a squeeze of lemon.

Check seasoning and adjust to taste. Serve family-style from the pot.