Valentine meal: Crispy spiced chicken

Crispy spiced chicken with Gran Luchito mayo served with duchess potatoes, watercress and cherry tomatoes roasted on the vine…

If you’re staying in on February 14, but fancy cooking up a treat for your Valentine then here’s a really simple but supremely tasty recipe to woo them with.

The chicken breast is coated with delicious Gran Luchito chilli-spiked mayonnaise, rolled in crispy panko breadcrumbs then oven baked.

Gran Luchito Mayo is made with rare smoked Mexican chillies and is nothing like i’ve ever tasted.

The chilli flavour comes through the creamy mayo in a golden, warm and punchy manner. It is basically very very very good! Sandwich fillings and jacket potato toppers here we come!

But back to my romantic meal for two…

To make the dish extra alluring roast some on-the-vine cherry tomatoes with a little olive oil and salt. These pretty up the plate along with a small handful of watercress.

As it’s a special occasion, I’ve gone the extra mile and whipped up some duchess potatoes. These fru-fru carbs are great for entertaining as you can make them in advance and simply bake when needed. Keep them in the fridge for a short stay, or in the freezer for a long term visit.

Growing up I remember them as a dinner party staple for my mum as they look so pretty, and I was always very impressed when she made them. It’s not until now that i’ve tried mastering them myself.

At the end of the day it’s just mash pimped up in a fancy pants way, but if you’re feeding fussy children it might captivate them a bit!

I was going to feed the leftovers from this photoshoot to the boys for their tea, however I had two very hungry firefighters to feed and they powered through the lot!  At least it gave me reassurance that the recipe was a success.

Crispy spiced chicken with duchess potatoes
Serves 2 (with potatoes to spare)

Prep time: 40 mins
Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients

For the duchess potatoes
750g potatoes
1 egg
50g butter
quarter tsp ground nutmeg

For the crispy spiced chicken
2 chicken breasts
plain flour
4 tbsp Gran Luchito mayo
60g Panko breadcrumbs

To serve
On the vine cherry tomatoes
watercress

Method

1. For the duchess potatoes: peel the spuds and cut into chunks, cover with water, bring to the boil and cook for 20-25 mins until tender.

2. Drain and return to the heat briefly to dry out potatoes before adding the butter, egg and nutmeg and mashing until smooth.

3. Put a large star nozzle into a disposable piping bag stand it up in a glass and spoon the mash into it. Grease a baking tray and pipe small swirls onto the sheet, like you would the top of a cupcake. Meanwhile prepare the chicken

4. For the crispy spiced chicken: grease a baking sheet and fill three dishes individually with flour, Gran Luchito Mayo and Panko breadcrumbs.

5. Remove any skin and trim fat and bobbly bits from each chicken breast. If they’re quite chunky breasts you could pummel them flatter with a rolling pin.

6. Coat each chicken breast in flour, then the mayo, and finally the breadcrumbs. You will get VERY messy so use gloves if you prefer. Transfer each coated chicken breast onto the baking sheet. (You could refrigerate both the potatoes and chicken at this point if you’re preparing this meal in advance)

7. When you’re ready to cook your meal, pre-heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Place the cherry tomatoes, still on the vine into a small roasting dish and drizzle with olive oil and a scattering of sea salt.

8. Put them into the oven with the tray of chicken and duchess potatoes and cook for 20-25 mins.

9. Serve to your valentine with a little watercress on the side and plenty of champagne and candles.

Tips

What about the rest of the potatoes? Allow them to cool and then pop the tray in the freezer, then once solid remove and pop in a bag and back in the freezer and take out as you need them.

Make it vegetarian! Use frozen Quorn fillets and follow the same method – my veggie husband said it was the nicest vegetarian meal I’d made him!

Mash Tip: Add a bit of extra flavour to the duchess potatoes by using garlic butter – Lurpack do a lovely one that i’m always using.

Sponsored post

Disclosure: Gran Luchito kindly sent me some of their products to create this #spicyvalentines recipe, for which they also covered the cost of my ingredients and a payment for the time spent on the creation of this blog post.

If you fancy checking out some more recipes using Gran Luchito, you can find some rather brilliant ones below:

Laura’s Spiced, Honey Roast Squash, Chorizo, Prawn and Feta Salad

Ren’s Baked Camembert with smoked chilli honey

Jacqueline’s Smoked Chilli Bean Burgers

Michelle’s Salmon with Gran Luchito Honey Glaze or Trout with Gran Luchito Mayo

Nazima’s Braised Poussin with Chilli, Lime and Herb Broth

Helen’s Chilli Honey Marshmallows

Urvashi’s Chilli Honey Baklava