Is it possible to look at that picture and not begin cooking? Suzen and I succumbed in a heartbeat. This picture is from the book The Islands of Greece. We did make the dish and loved every bite of it, that day and the next. I took a picture, too, but mine does not have the grace of the photo from the book. The photos in The Islands of Greece are by Steven Joyce and display, page after page, a grace in color and texture. He’s both a photographer and a foodie.
In this recipe, chicken is baked over a bed of shallots. When almost cooked, a yoghurt-dill sauce, fortified with egg and cheese, is poured over the chicken for a final resounding bake. The result? It tastes like chicken, of course, but chicken enriched by the sauce and definitely bearing the scent of dill. It’s rich without being decadent, a dish for any day of the week.
As good as the chicken is, the shallots are transformed into lively fragments of fragrance.
Chicken Baked in Yoghurt
Yield: serves 4
Ingredients:
- Knob of unsalted butter
- 8 free-range chicken thighs and drumsticks, or 4 whole leg portions
- 16 spring onions (scallions)
- Juice of I lemon
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 16 shallots, quartered
- 8 garlic cloves, chopped into chunks
- 1 cup of Greek yoghurt
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped dill
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 4 tablespoons grated pecorino or Greek kefalotyri cheese
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6).
Place the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the chicken and brown it all over. Trim and cut the spring onions into 2 cm (3A in) lengths and place in an ovenproof dish which will fit all the ingredients snugly. Pour in the lemon juice and then the contents of the chicken pan, including the hot fat. Season with salt and pepper, then add the shallots and garlic and toss them in the fat. Arrange the chicken so it is resting on the shallots, place in the oven and cook for 30 minutes, basting halfway through cooking.
Meanwhile, mix together the yoghurt, dill, eggs and cheese and season with a little salt and pepper.
After the chicken has cooked for 30 minutes, remove from the oven and pierce a thigh to the bone to check it is cooked through; the meat should come away from the bone and the juices should run clear. If not, return to the oven for 5-10 minutes. When cooked, pour over the yoghurt mixture and return to the oven for 15 minutes, to allow the sauce to thicken and begin to brown.
Serve immediately with a green salad or with the Greek Vegetable Bake blogged a week ago.
Source: The Islands of Greece by Rebecca Seal [Hardie Grant, 2015]