One of my favourites – chicken suya with cherry tomatoes and red onion. Suya is a traditional Nigerian spice blend made with roasted peanuts, salt, cayenne pepper, garlic, onion, white and black pepper.
It’s normally coated on very thin strips of beef and barbecued (then served up with cherry tomatoes and red onion in newspaper). As I’m not eating much red meat at the moment here’s a chicken traybake version with a little added honey for sticky, salty and sweet goodness.
Serves 2
Prep 15 mins + 2 hours or marinate overnight
Cook 40 mins
Total 55 mins
Ingredients
500g free-range chicken thighs and drumsticks
125g cherry tomatoes, sliced and quartered
1 medium sized red onion, finely sliced
1 lemon, sliced and quartered (optional)
For the marinade
2 tbsp clear honey
2 tbsp groundnut oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp coarse black pepper
For the suya spice mix
120g roasted peanuts
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
Method
First marinate the chicken. Place the chicken in a large bowl and add honey, 1 tbsp oil, lemon juice, salt, black pepper and half of the suya spice (blitz the spices in a food processor until a fine crumb to make the suya spice). Mix well into the chicken and leave to marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to180C/ gas mark 4 / 350F. Arrange the chicken on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and sprinkle over 2 tbsp of suya spice (keep the remainder in an airtight jar). P
Place half the cherry tomatoes and red onion around the chicken. Drizzle over 1 tbsp of oil.
Bake for 35-40 mins or until golden brown and the chicken juices run clear. Add the remaining cherry tomatoes and red onion. Garnish with the lemon slices and enjoy!
