This is a wonderful full-flavoured Asian-inspired dish for Valentine’s day that looks lovely on the plate, but which is a snap to prepare.
Prep time 20 minutes/Cook time 30 minutes/Serves 2
Ingredients:
2 whole chicken legs (about 200g [1/2 lb] each)
8 spring onions
1-2 fresh mixed-colour chillies
3 oranges, (regular or blood oranges)
2 tbsp (heaped) hoisin sauce
Red wine vinegar
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC fan/350ºF/gas mark 4.
Set a non-stick ovenproof frying pan over a high heat. Pull off the skin from the chicken legs, then put both skin and legs into the pan, season with sea salt and black pepper and let the fat render out of the chicken. Continue cooking the chicken until it becomes golden (about 5 minutes), turning halfway, while you trim the spring onions and halve across the middle, putting the green halves aside.
Toss the white parts of the spring onions into the pan, then transfer the pan to the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes.
In the meantime, de-seed the chillies, then finely slice them lengthways along with the green spring onions pieces and pop both into a bowl of ice-cold water to curl and crisp up.
Peel the oranges and finely slice the flesh into rounds. Arrange these on serving plates.
Remove the chicken skin and soft spring onions from the pan and put aside. Cook the chicken for 10 more minutes, or until tender and cooked through.
In a bowl, loosen the hoisin with a splash of red wine vinegar, then spoon over the chicken. Leave it in the oven while you drain and divide up the salad.
Sit the chicken and soft spring onions on top of the chilli and spring onion greens, crack over the crispy skin and serve.
