Nigella Lawson is one of my favorite food personalities because she seems so relaxed in the kitchen and she doesn't mind if you alter her recipes.
On her website she has a monthly cookalong and I finally decided to try one. The recipe for August was Maple Chicken and Ribs. It doesn't require many ingredients or techniques.
On her website she has a monthly cookalong and I finally decided to try one. The recipe for August was Maple Chicken and Ribs. It doesn't require many ingredients or techniques.
It starts with 12 chicken thighs and 12 spare ribs. As a single person, I thought that was a bit much so I only got 6 of each. Spare ribs are pork and short ribs are beef. This is was I learned at the meat counter of my local Fresh Market. As a bonus, the thighs were on sale for 99 cents a pound so thank you Nigella. Unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky with the spare ribs.
You then need 1 cup of apple juice and 4 tablespoons of maple syrup. I already had apple cider and thought that would so well with the maple so I used that. I didn't realize it but maple syrup is graded differently than most other things. Grade B is actually better than Grade A. Oops
I added the remaining ingredients- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and soy sauce, as well, as the star anise. There was no cinnamon stick in the house so I just used a pinch of ground cinnamon. My market offers garlic in containers already peeled so I just used those instead of the 6 unpeeled cloves.
In separate ziplock bags i put the ribs and chicken and added the dark brown marinade.
They were then put in the refrigerated overnight and I took the chicken and ribs out and cooked them for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 400 degrees.
I plated it with watercress for greenery and some butternut squash. Yum. The taste from the star anise gives the meat a somewhat haunting flavor. The ribs were moist but completely white on the inside. Thighs gave a luxurious feel and the skin was a lovely dark brown.
