Name: Chilli Chicken Supremes with Mashed Potato Skordalia
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 37 min
Ingredients: 1 small red chilli, stalk removed and roughly chopped (de-seed if you want to reduce the heat level); 8g/2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped; ¼ teaspoon dried chilli flakes; ⅛ teaspoon fine salt; ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 2 chicken supremes or use good sized chicken breasts; 1 bulb of garlic; ½ teaspoon olive oil; salt and freshly ground black pepper; 500g floury potatoes (eg Maris Piper or King Edwards) peeled and cut into chunks, plus ½ – 1 teaspoon fine salt; 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 garlic confit (from above); 80ml – 100ml soured cream; ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; ⅛ teaspoon fine salt; lemon wedges; side salad and/or vegetables of choice

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Melt in the mouth, tender chicken supremes prepared with chilli and garlic, then oven-baked and served with a luscious, silky, creamy, garlic mashed potato. Serve with a side salad and/or your favourite vegetables and you have an incredibly delicious and quick to prepare meal on the table in less than an hour.

Where is this recipe from?

I have been making this recipe for years; it is very slightly adapted from a Bill Granger recipe in his wonderful book, Easy. Bill uses chicken legs in the original recipe; I have used chicken supremes but you could also use chicken thigh meat, either with the bone in or bone out, with or without skin, or simple chicken breasts. Just use your favourite or what you have available – all are extremely delicious.

What is Skordalia?

Skordalia is a Greek garlic dip made with crushed garlic, olive oil and either mashed potato puree, bread or even nuts to bulk it out. This recipe uses potatoes mashed with creamy, slightly tangy soured cream and garlic confit, rather than raw garlic,

By roasting whole bulbs of garlic in the oven for 40 minutes and you get soft, creamy cloves with a rich, sweet flavour. They add depth and complexity to the potatoes and they pack a wonderful, yet mellow, flavour punch.

How to make Chilli Chicken Supremes with Mashed Potato Skordalia

Please see the printable Recipe Card below for the exact, yet condensed, quantities and instructions. Please note, this recipe is for 2 – 3 people but can be increased easily, if necessary.

Collect all the ingredients ogether:

Garlic Confit –

1 bulb of garlic
½ teaspoon olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chilli Chicken –

1 small red chilli, stalk removed and roughly chopped (de-seed if you want to reduce the heat level)
8g/2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
¼ teaspoon dried chilli flakes
⅛ teaspoon fine salt
⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 chicken supremes or use good sized chicken breasts

Skordalia –

500g floury potatoes (eg Maris Piper or King Edwards) peeled and cut into chunks, plus ½ – 1 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic confit (from above)
80ml – 100ml soured cream
⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
⅛ teaspoon fine salt

To serve:

lemon wedges
side salad and/or vegetables of choice

How to make his fabulous, winner, winner chicken dinner:

Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients. Remember to take your chicken supremes/breasts out of the fridge, to come to room temperature, before you cook them. This can take around half an hour, depending on the ambient temperature. (See below for more details.)
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6 (fan 180°C)
Marinade: prepare the chilli and garlic and place in a mini food processor with the chilli flakes, salt, pepper and olive oil. Blitz until everything is very finely chopped and mixed. Tip into an ovenproof dish large enough to take the chicken supremes.
Chicken: pat the chicken breasts dry with kitchen paper and place, flesh side down, in the chilli and garlic mix. Drizzle with the extra olive oil and rub evenly into the skin with your fingers, or use a cooking brush.
Season with flakes of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bake in the centre of a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, check the chicken to make sure it is not too brown already, and crank up the heat up to 250°C/480°F/Gas 9 (fan 230°C). Cook for a further 10 minutes until the meat is cooked through and the skin is brown and crispy. (See below for how to test when chicken is cooked.)
Remove from the oven, cover loosely with foil and set aside for 5 – 10 minutes to rest. It is important that you only loosely cover the chicken or it will sweat in the heat and you will lose the wonderfully crispy skin.
Serve with the pan juices, silky mashed potatoes and some green vegetables or a green salad on the side.
Garlic confit – as soon as you put the chicken in the oven, prepare the garlic confit. Slice the top ¼ off a bulb of garlic and put it in the centre of a piece of foil. Loosely gather the foil around the garlic, pour over ½ teaspoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Seal the foil loosely around the top of the garlic and put in a pre-heated oven for 40 minutes.
Remove from the oven. When cool enough to handle, squeeze the confit out of the cloves. (If you cannot wait and the garlic is still hot, I use rubber gloves to protect my hands.)
Make the Skordalia – peel the potatoes and cut into even sized chunks. Cover with cold water, add the salt and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook until soft. This will take 15 – 25 minutes, depending on the type and size of the potatoes. Drain well.
Add the olive oil, 160g soured cream, garlic confit and the freshly ground black pepper.
Mash the potatoes with either a potato masher or an electric whisk. (NB If whisking, stop whisking as soon as the potatoes are light and fluffy. If you over-whisk, the potatoes can become waxy in texture.) Taste and add more salt and/or sour cream as necessary.
Serve: spoon some skordalia onto a hot plate. Top with chicken and pour over some juices from the baking tray. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with wedges of lemon and some salad and/or vegetables on the side.

Why should meat be cooked at room temperature?

When you cook meat, the muscles in the flesh contract and tighten when heated. The colder the muscles the more they will contract; this means it is harder for the heat to distribute evenly. By letting the meat come to room temperature before you cook it, the meat will cook more evenly and when cooked, it will be juicier. It can take between 20 – 40 minutes for fridge cold chicken breasts to reach room temperature, depending on their size and the ambient room temperature.

You also need time to rest the meat after cooking:

As the muscles of the meat contract and tighten when cooked, the juices are forced toward the surface of the meat and some will evaporate. (Which is why overcooked meat is dry.) Allowing the meat to rest after you have removed the heat source, means the muscles will relax and the juices can re-distribute throughout the meat. If you cut it immediately, you are in danger of losing some of these juices; your chicken may then be dry and the flavour from those gorgeous juices will be lost.

Check the chicken is cooked:

Pierce centre of the breast flesh with a skewer; any juices coming out of the chicken should be clear and the meat should be opaque. If you see any pinkness or blood, cook for a further 5 – 10 minutes. If you use a meat thermometer, the internal temperature of the breast should read 165°F or 75°C.

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