Easy Baked Chilli Chicken

Now that I have two hungry grown men, me and two kids living in the house and occasionally my father staying for dinner as well, I am always on the lookout for economical meals that are tasty, fast, easy, healthy and not too hard to clean up after!

Impossible? ...Almost.

This recipe checks every box and if there's any chicken left over it makes a great sandwich filling. Chicken thighs are not only cheaper, but are higher in nutrients than the breast, and are much tastier too.

This recipe would also work really well as a quick marinade for skin-on thighs to cook on the BBQ too.

8 chicken thighs, skin off

4 large cloves of garlic, crushed

1/2 cup soy sauce

3Tbs sweet chilli sauce

1tsp dried chilli flakes (or sambal oelek) - or to taste.

1 lime

Fresh coriander leaves, if available

Preheat the oven to 200•C.

Mix the crushed garlic, soy, sweet chilli sauce and chilli flakes together in a large bowl. Throw in the chicken thighs and stir to combine. Then, line a large shallow baking dish with foil or greaseproof paper and spread the thighs out so they are in a single layer.

Bake in the hot oven for 30-40 mins. Cut them in half to check they're done, and if so add the corriander leaves, squeeze fresh lime juice over them and season generously with salt and pepper.

These chilli chicken thighs are super delicious with steamed rice and corn or asparagus. You could also easily whack a cut up eggplant into the oven at the same time too for the Rocket & Eggplant Salad if you liked.

The baked thighs and lime juice make just enough liquid, I think, to go with the rice, but if you had any cubes of chicken stock in the freezer you could add a couple of these at the end to finish the sauce.

Rocket & Eggplant Salad

The rocket in my garden has gone totally bizerk lately, I can hardly eat it fast enough! The newest leaves are tender and sweet but as the plant matures they get more peppery. Eating this plant is insanely healthy, it has all manner of antioxidants and other things I can't even pronounce, it even has Vitamin K in it which is reported to help fight Alzheimer's, something I'm keenly interested in.

This is the yummiest salad and my absolute favourite way of eating eggplant - caramelised and delicious! When persuaded to try a piece even my 6yr old rated it ten out of ten. We made it recently to eat with a roast lamb dinner. It was scrumptious with the roast potatoes and pumpkin and any vegetarian would be more than satisfied to have it in place of the lamb.

1 large bowl of fresh rocket

1 large eggplant, cubed

Fresh herbs from the garden such as basil or mint

Balsamic vinegar

Put the eggplant in a baking dish with a drizzle of olive oil, a little more than you would use on some baked potatoes, season with salt and pepper and place in a hot oven 180• - 200•. Keep an eye on the eggplant. After 15 minutes if it looks a little dry add another drizzle of oil. (Eggplant has a tendency to soak up all the oil its given, so its important not to give it too much, or to make sure your oil is really hot if you're frying on the BBQ for instance.)

The eggplant is ready in about half an hour, depending on the heat of your oven, when it is nicely browned and caramelised.

Assemble the salad by laying out the rocket and adding the eggplant then drizzling with the balsamic vinegar. You can also add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice too with the herbs if you like.