Ben Lebus’ MOB Kitchen: The Cheekiest Peri Peri Chicken

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place a whole chicken on a baking sheet. Cover with olive oil. Add 2 tsp of smoked paprika and 1 tsp of dried oregano. Rub it in. Place the chicken in the hot oven for 30 minutes.

Time to start prepping the sauce. Cut the red peppers and red onion into chunks and chuck them on a baking sheet. Cut a lemon in half. Add the lemon halves, face down, and drizzle olive oil over everything. Place the baking sheet in the oven for 40 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove the chicken, and baste it in the juices. Place it back in the oven for another 30 minutes.

When the vegetables and lemon are charred and soft, remove from the oven. Place the onion and the peppers into a blender. Squeeze out the juice from the roasted lemons. Add the chillies, grated garlic cloves, the zest and juice of a fresh lemon, 2 teaspoons of dried oregano and 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika, red wine vinegar, a tablespoon of olive oil and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Blitz until you have a smooth orange sauce.

Pour the sauce into a frying pan and add the bay leaves. Allow the sauce to gently bubble away for a couple of minutes so the bay leaves can infuse. Get the rice on (following the instructions on the packet) and heat up the black beans.

While the sauce is getting on, take your chicken out of the oven. Baste it in the juices, and then remove it from the pan. Hack it up roughly.

Serve the chicken on a bed of basmati rice and black beans, and pour your sauce over the top. Enjoy, mob. This one’s pretty special.

MOB Kitchen by Ben Lebus, Pavilion, £14.99. Photo © Haarala Hamilton.