Yogurt - baked chicken with fennel, Lemon and Olives
This recipe is so easy that it can barely count as one and is as interchangeable as you like. One ingredient is doing most of the work. The yoghurt isn’t just there as a marinade. Its gentle acidity helps tenderise the chicken, while its fat keeps everything rich and succulent as it cooks. It also gives the chilli, oregano and fennel seeds something to cling to, so the seasoning stays wrapped around the chicken rather than disappearing into the bottom of the tray. In the oven, the yoghurt changes again. Its milk proteins and natural sugars begin to caramelise against the heat, giving the chicken those darker, savoury edges, while the yoghurt underneath mixes with the chicken juices and olive oil to make its own sauce. Putting the chicken directly over the fennel is important too. It effectively becomes a lid, trapping the vegetables underneath in all those juices. The fennel softens rather than simply roasting, the garlic turns sweet and spoonable, and the pieces of lemon lose their harshness and become soft, savoury and almost jammy.
Ingredients
Chicken Thighs
- 1 kg Bone in
Full Fat Yogurt
- 200 g -
Chilli Flakes
- 1 teaspoon -
Dried Oregano
- 2 teaspoons -
Fennel Seeds
- 1 teaspoon -
Fine Sea Salt
- 1 teaspoon -
Fennel Bulbs
- 2 -
Lemon
- 1 -
Green Olives
- 20 Pitted
Garlic Cloves
- 2 Peeled and left whole
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 3 tablespoons -
Black Pepper
Method
1. Method Heat the oven to 180°C fan. Put the chicken in a large bowl with the yoghurt, chilli flakes, oregano, fennel seeds and salt. Season with black pepper, then mix really well so every piece of chicken is completely coated in the yoghurt. Trim the fennel and cut it roughly into chunky wedges. Cut the lemon into small chunks. Tip the fennel into a medium roasting tray with the lemon, olives and whole garlic cloves. Drizzle over the olive oil and toss everything together. (you want everything to be semi smug as this will create the juices at the bottom you want) Lay the yoghurt-coated chicken over the top, making sure most of the fennel and particularly the pieces of lemon are tucked underneath the chicken. Spoon over any yoghurt left in the bowl. Roast for about 1 hour, basting half way through until the chicken is deeply golden in places, completely tender and cooked through. By this point the fennel should be very soft and the garlic and lemon will have collapsed into the yoghurt, chicken. I love to serve this with a big green salad and some potatoes to soak up the juices.
