Piri-piri chicken with smashed sweet potatoes & broccoli
Ingredients
3 large sweet potatoes (about 900g), peeled and cut into large chunks
oil , for drizzling
6-8 chicken thighs, skin left on
2 red onions , cut into wedges
25g sachet piri-piri spice mix (or a mild version, if you like)
300g long-stem broccoli
Method
STEP 1
Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Toss the sweet potatoes with a generous drizzle of oil and some seasoning, and tip into a very large roasting tin. Push the potatoes to one end of the tin, then, in the other end, toss the chicken with the onions, spice mix, a drizzle of oil and some seasoning. Roast for 40 mins, stirring everything halfway through. Add the broccoli to the tin, drizzle with a little oil and season, then roast for 10-15 mins more.
STEP 2
Remove the chicken, onions and broccoli from the tin. Roughly mash the potatoes using a fork, making sure you incorporate all the chicken juices and spices from the pan. Spread the mash over the base of the tin, then top with the broccoli, chicken and onions and serve from the tin in the middle of the table.
Chocolate cupcakes
These light cakes are perfect for freezing – they just need a quick blast in the microwave to bring them back to life
Ingredients
300g dark chocolate , broken into chunks – don’t use one with a high cocoa content
200g self-raising flour
200g light muscovado sugar , plus 3 tbsp extra
6 tbsp cocoa
150ml sunflower oil , plus a little extra for greasing
284ml pot soured cream
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
STEP 1
Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and line a 10-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Whizz the chocolate into small pieces in a food processor. In the largest mixing bowl you have, tip in the flour, sugar, cocoa, oil, 100ml soured cream, eggs, vanilla and 100ml water. Whisk everything together with electric beaters until smooth, then quickly stir in 100g of the whizzed-up chocolate bits. Divide between the 10 cases, then bake for 20 mins until a skewer inserted comes out clean (make sure you don’t poke it into a chocolate chip bit). Cool on a wire rack.
STEP 2
To make the icing, put the remaining chocolate bits, soured cream and 3 tbsp sugar in a small saucepan. Heat gently, stirring, until the chocolate is melted and you have a smooth icing. Chill in the fridge until firm enough to swirl on top of the muffins, then tuck in.
