this is for my mate sammy. sometimes she doesn’t know what to make for dinner so she text’s me what she has in her fridge or cupboard and i send her back a recipe for her dinner.

one thing that is important here is to always have a few pantry staples. i recommend tinned legumes (lentils, chickpeas, cannellini beans etc), tinned tomatoes, dried pasta & noodles, rice, dried herbs & spices, extra virgin olive oil… that’s a pretty good start, albiet a basic one, but we’ll get a few more things in there later.

and you would definitely, unequivocally want a window box or garden with a few herbs in it… parsley, basil, thyme, rosemary, mint, oregano… well, maybe a few window boxes. surely your house has more than one window. unless you live in a toilet in which case you probably do not possess the technology needed to read this shit.

so this is what sammy has in her larder tonight – chicken thighs, bacon, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tinned tomatoes and rosemary.

this is what sammy’s gonna make… oven roasted chicken wrapped in bacon and rosemary, caramelised sweet potato and broccoli.

pre-heat oven to 180C.
wrap the chicken thighs with one rasher of bacon, tucking a sprig of rosemary under the bacon, and secure bacon with kitchen twine or a skewer.
season the thighs with a little salt and pepper and hit them up with a bit of olive oil, then straight into the oven for 20 minutes.
in the meantime cut the sweet potato up into 2cm cubes, add to the chicken baking dish and drizzle (drizzle? i’m sure there’s a better word out there somewhere) with a coupla Tbls of local honey.
back into the oven for 30 minutes(ish), shaking the dish once or twice during that time.
with 10 minutes to go put a pot of slightly salted water on to boil. once it’s boiling add broccoli florets and cook for 3-4 minutes.
drain.
now check your chicken and potatoes are cooked. maybe just cut the thigh in half to check the chicken and the sweet potato should be soft and delicious.

to serve put the potato and broccoli on a plate, one or two pieces of chicken on each, a little of the pan juices fro the oven dish and a wedge of lemon on the side.

great job. time to apply for the next season of master chef kiddo!