This is a good recipe with which to AMAZE and DELIGHT your friends. They will marvel over your skill with chicken, and mutter to themselves about how they didn't realise you were this good at cooking.
1. Get some CHICKEN. This much is obvious. It can be any kind of chicken. You might be one of those mad people who favours the dry, dull breast over the moist, tasty dark meat. I don't want to know you, but I will give you my recipe, if only because I literally cannot stop you reading now you've come this far. Anyway, get CHICKEN and brown it off in a pan. We're pretending this recipe is Italian, so olive oil is a good thing here.
2. Once the chicken is a bit brown add some ONIONS chopped into half moons. Brown these also.
3. As this is happening remove the skin and nasty ends from some fat cloves of GARLIC and mash them in a pestle and mortar along with a KNORR CHICKEN STOCK CUBE, so they make a lovely garlicky, stocky paste. You may be starting to think I'm sponsored by Knorr here so let me be clear: Knorr cubes for mashing and stock-making, Knorr Stockpots for adding to or making sauces or glazes, Oxo cubes for sprinkling.
4. Once the chicken and onions have browned add the garlicky stock-mash and fry some more. Then add some DRIED BASIL, some CRACKED BLACK PEPPER, some DRIED CHILLI FLAKES, and a decent number of GREEN and BLACK olives, fresh from their brine-jars, pitted and halved.
5. Add a liberal, confident splosh of BALSAMIC VINEGAR and then squeeze some, but not too much, juice from a LEMON into your mix, and a little extra whoosh of OLIVE OIL. Don't throw away the lemon! Add a little BOILING WATER, just enough to cover the onions and olives, and then start to reduce down.
6. Simmer and stir, simmer and stir. When the whole thing has reduced down, a lot or a little depending on whether you want a thick sticky glaze-like sauce, or a more jus-like consistency, it's time to put the whole thing into and oven-friendly dish. Cut your lemon into eighths and add it to the dish, and bake away for a while at a not too high temperature, say around 180 or so.
7. Remove from the oven, and take out the lemon pieces. You can use them for garnish if you like, though I've heard Michel Roux Junior say you shouldn't put anything on a plate you can't eat. Or perhaps it wasn't him. It was someone on Masterchef. Anyway, serve with something nice and green like broccoli or kale, and watch your friends and loved ones reassess you before your very eyes.
