Hot Pepper Chicken Under a Brick with an Orange and Poppy Seed Dressed Salad
Ingredients
- 4 large chicken legs and thighs, bone in, skin on or, 4 chicken breasts, bone-in, skin on
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 rounded tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), plus more, for drizzling, divided
- 2-3 tablespoons finely chopped banana pepper rings
- 2 tablespoons hot pickled pepper juice
- Handful freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1 tablespoon orange marmalade
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1/2 seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
- 4 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced
- 1 bunch arugula or watercress, cleaned and chopped
- Crusty bread, cut into slices, for mopping
- 1 garlic clove, cut in 1/2
Preparation
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Combine crushed red pepper, mustard and about 2 tablespoons oil in a small dish. Slather the mixture over the skin of the chicken. Place chicken face down in a nonstick skillet. Set loose foil over chicken then a plate or smaller pan on top and weigh it down with a brick or heavy cans. Place pan over medium to medium-high heat and cook. After 18 minutes flip the chicken to get some color on the other side. Reduce the heat from medium to medium-low and cook for another 2 minutes, until cooked through. Remove weight, turn chicken over and sprinkle with chopped hot peppers then douse with pepper juice and top with parsley.
While chicken cooks, transfer the marmalade to a microwaveable dish; give it a zap just to loosen it up. Remove from the microwave and whisk together the marmalade and poppy seeds and vinegar then stream in 3 tablespoons EVOO. Toss cucumbers, tomatoes and greens with the dressing and season with salt and pepper.
Turn broiler on.
Place bread under broiler and broil until charred or toasted. Remove from the broiler and rub with cut garlic, drizzle with EVOO and rub bread in the pan juices after the chicken comes out.
Serve chicken with salad and soaked bread.
