Tamarind and smoked chilli barbecue chicken thighs
Make your own tamarind and chilli barbecue sauce to give marinated chicken thighs a fabulous glossy finish with bags of flavour.
Ingredients
For the tamarind and chilli barbecue sauce
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp freshly picked thyme leaves
- 2 spring onions, trimmed and cut into 4 pieces
- 2.5cm/1in piece fresh root ginger, peeled
- 1 Scotch bonnet chilli (deseeded)
- 1 tbsp rapeseed or vegetable oil
- 1 tsp yeast extract
- 100g/3½oz block of seedless tamarind paste (loosened with 100ml/3½fl oz boiling water)
- 250ml/9fl oz pineapple juice
- 100g/3½oz dark brown sugar
- 10²µ/â…“o³ú ground allspice
- salt and black pepper
For the chicken
- 16 skin-on chicken thighs (cleaned, deboned and skin scored)
- 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
- 10²µ/â…“o³ú ground coriander
- 10²µ/â…“o³ú ground turmeric
- 10²µ/â…“o³ú ground cumin
- 10²µ/â…“o³ú paprika
- 10²µ/â…“o³ú ground allspice
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 20g/¾oz fresh root ginger, grated
- 50g/1¾oz fresh thyme, leaves picked
- 10²µ/â…“o³ú long red or green chilli, finely chopped
- 200g/7oz tamarind and chilli barbecue sauce (from above)
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
On a small baking tray combine the whole garlic cloves, thyme, sping onion and scotch bonnet and oil. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper before roasting for 15 minutes.
Squeeze the garlic cloves from their skins into the jug of a blender. Add the other roasted aromatics and blend until smooth. (Add a splash of the pineapple juice if necessary to aid blending.) Transfer to a small saucepan and add all the remaining ingredients for the sauce.
On a medium heat continuously stir and simmer for about 15 minutes until the sauce is thick and glossy.
For the chicken, put all of the ingredients, except for the barbecue sauce, into bowl and mix well to coat the chicken. Marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
In a large frying pan, heat a little oil and fry the chicken thighs skin-side down until golden-brown. Turn over and continue cooking for about 20–25 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden-brown all over. You will need to do this in two batches unless you have a very large pan.
Glaze with the barbecue sauce and continue cooking for a further 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.