Curried Roast Chicken Leg with Spicy Sweet Potato Chips

I love curry, I cook curry a lot, I eat curry a lot, I hope my sister marries an Indian one day. I don't know why I've not been posting more curries. This is still not a curry, but those wonderful aromatic spices and flavours help to add the much-needed kick to a standard roast chicken (leg) recipe. Together with sweet salty spicy sweet potato chips it's a really easy roast dinner. (When I came to the UK, I learnt that chips aren't the thin wafers in a can of Pringles. Those are crisps. A chip is a fatter fry/ skinnier wedge. Well, at least according to the British).

Curried Roast Chicken Leg with Spicy Sweet Potato Chips

Serves 1

Ingredients

1 chicken leg, skin-on, bone-on

1 medium sweet potato, scrubbed clean and cut into fat sticks

1 large banana shallot, halved, not peeled (you can use a normal shallot. or even a small onion.)

2 cloves garlic, smashed, not peeled

1/ 2 tsp coriander

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp cinnamon

sea salt, chilli powder (to taste, about 1/2 tsp)

1 tbsp melted coconut oil + 1 tsp butter (you can replace the oil with evoo, or unrefined palm oil)

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celsius.

2. Make the spice paste/marinade/rub.

For the chicken: cumin, turmeric, and half of the coriander, chilli powder, salt and coconut oil.

For the sweet potato: cinnamon, half the coriander, salt and chilli powder, salt and coconut oil.

Rub the spice paste all over the chicken and sweet potato, lifting up the chicken skin a bit to rub some onto the flesh too.

3. In the middle of a roasting tray, place the halved shallot cut side down, and the chicken leg on top of it. Scatter the sweet potato and garlic around the chicken, be careful not to overlap!

4. Put into the oven and roast for about 45 min, or until the chicken skin is brown and crisp, and the chips are tender on the inside and crispy on the outside.

Cucumber and Mint Raita (optional, but just do it.)

serves 4 (save the extra or quarter the recipe)

Ingredients

250 ml plain whole yogurt

1/2 cucumber, peeled and chopped very finely

handful of mint leaves, chopped very finely

pinch of cumin powder

pinch of salt

Method

1. Sprinkle salt over the cucumber and then leave to sit and drain and squeeze out all the water from the cucumber.

2. Mix all ingredients together.

Finally, garnish the dish with fresh coriander, and serve with a dollop of cucumber and mint raita.

This chicken is just oozing with juicy spicy savouriness, and the shallots and sweet potatoes are bursting with sweetness, all balanced by the refreshing yogurt and cucumber. Yay now go wiggle your head bollywood-style.

This is part of Seasonal Sunday.