Sweet and spicy chicken

I like this chicken dish for Rosh Hashanah because it’s sweet-ish and as spicy as you choose to make it. The recipe is adapted from Jake Cohen’s Jew-Ish: A Cookbook.

Ingredients

1.5kg chicken pieces

Approximately 5 Tbsp oil

2½ tsp salt

2 garlic cloves

1 medium-sized onion

Half-cup tomato sauce

Half-cup pomegranate juice

Half-tsp ground chilli pepper (more if you like more heat)

3 Tbsp lemon juice

Preparation

Brine chicken by mixing thoroughly with three Tbsp oil and two tsp salt. Leave in the fridge for an hour or two. The original recipe called for adding additional dry spices like smoked paprika, coriander, cloves, etc. It’s up to you, but not necessary;

For the barbeque sauce: combine the rest of the oil and salt with all the other ingredients in a food processor, and blend until smooth;

In a bowl, mix brined chicken well with BBQ sauce.

In a covered saucepan, add scant oil to prevent sticking and heat on stove to frying temperature – about 150C or when chicken sizzles on contact. Sear both sides of chicken pieces until dark red brown, but not burnt. Reduce heat to low, and cover saucepan. Cook until chicken’s interior is 71C, or it breaks apart easily with a knife and fork.

Serving

Keep the chicken covered until serving time so it doesn’t dry out;

Arrange on a serving platter; taste a piece to check salt and pepper levels – you may want to shake a bit more on top.

Garnish with pretty things, like pomegranate seeds, cilantro, pine nuts, etc, anything you already have in your kitchen and that looks appealing.

Emma Gordon Blass is an ex-South African writer and foodie who lives in North Carolina.