Smoky pomegranate chicken

So humour me on this one. I know it doesn’t sound like the most natural or classic combination but you’ll be glad you made this! It’s so much more than pomegranate and chicken (figuratively speaking … it actually is pretty much just pomegranate, chicken and onions). It’s got depth of flavour, tastes smoky, a bit fiery, a teensy bit sweet and just lovely and delicious.

The original recipe is from Jamie Oliver which I pretty much followed: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

I used a whole chicken (jointed into 6 pieces and using any leftovers for stock ) but of course you can just get the equivalent individual pieces if you’d prefer.

This dish doesn’t take a lot of prep, most of it is cooking time as follows:

Ingredients for 4:

• 1 chicken (or enough pieces of chicken)
• 2 tsp sweet paprika 
• 2 onions
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 red chilli
• 2 tbsp fresh coriander
• 300ml passata
• 4 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• 200ml pomegranate juice
• rice (or other side including any veg you’d like)
• pomegranate seeds (if you like your garnish)

What to do:

1. Season the chicken with salt, pepper and paprika, and cook with a tbsp of oil in a casserole pan for about 7 minutes on each side until brown. While it’s cooking, slice the onion.
   Note: decide whether you want to keep skin on or not. I kept some on and made some crispy skin for garnish as per the photo – but the sauce helps keep it moist so I don’t think you’d lose any of the taste by going healthier and using skinless chicken pieces.
2. Remove the chicken from the pan once it’s browned and add the onion, cooking on low for about 10 minutes so that the onion soften. While that’s cooking, slice the chilli, grate/crush the garlic, chop the coriander and add them for another 5 minutes.
3. Add in the passata, molasses and pomegranate juice, season thoroughly and bring to the boil.
4. Add the chicken pieces (with any juices) back into the pan and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked and the sauce as thickened. Do check it every 10 mins while it’s cooking to make sure it doesn’t stick to the pan (mine didn’t at all but Jamie Oliver says to check and I don’t want to ruin your pan!

While the chicken is cooking, prepare your rice and any veg.

When serving, add any extra coriander to the rice, and garnish with pomegranate seeds and/or crispy skin!