For the chicken:
2 chicken breasts, skin on
salt and pepper
olive oil
¼ tsp allspice
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp cinnamon
ground nutmeg
4 spring onions
4 garlic cloves
2 red chilies
3 tsp muscovado sugar
3 tbsp fresh thyme
8 tbsp brown rum
6 tbsp white wine vinegar
For the rice and beans:
2 spring onions
1 tbsp olive oil
½ cinnamon stick
salt and pepper
125g long-grain rice
300ml chicken stock
125g kidney beans, drained weight
For the pineapple slaw:
150g savoy cabbage
1 carrot (100g)
¼ red onion
100g pineapple (fresh or tinned)
1 handful mint
1 handful coriander
For the dressing:
1 ½ tsp French mustard
3 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp muscovado sugar
3 tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp hot sauce (like Tabasco)
Prep: 1h – Serves 2 – A little effort
Start with the pineapple slaw. Finely chop the cabbage and put into a large bowl. Peel and grate the carrot and add to the bowl. Cut the red onion into fine slices and add to the bowl. Finely chop the pineapple and the mint and coriander add to the bowl. Set aside.
For the dressing: mix all the dressing ingredients in a little bowl and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Start by ‘butterflying’ the chicken, which is basically cutting the chicken in half to give it a uniform thickness. Put your chicken breast on a chopping board and lay your hand flat on top of it. Cut into one side of the breast, starting at the thicker end and ending at the thin point, making sure the chicken stays joined at the end. Open out the breast so that it resembles a butterfly. Repeat with the second chicken breast. Place into a small roasting tin and drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil, season with salt and pepper and rub it into the meat.
In a little bowl, mix the allspice, ginger, cinnamon a good pinch of nutmeg. Sprinkle ¼ tsp over the skin-side of the butterflied chicken breasts and rub into the meat.
To make the sauce, trim the spring onions, roughly chop and put into a blender. Peel the garlic cloves and add to the blender. Cut the stem off the chilies and add to the blender (if you prefer it less spicy, deseed the chilies first). Add the sugar, thyme, rum, white wine vinegar, 2 tbsp olive oil and the rest of the spice mix from the little bowl and blend into a smooth sauce.
Put a griddle pan on a high heat. Once it’s really hot, add the chicken breasts, skin-side down and grill for about 3-5 minutes until the skin is brown and crispy.
Meanwhile, pour the sauce into the roasting tin used for the chicken breasts.
Once the chicken skin is browned, turn the chicken over and briefly grill for another minute. Take out of the griddle pan and transfer into the baking tray, so that the chicken sits on the sauce and the skin side is facing upwards.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the rice. Trim and roughly chop the spring onions. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and fry the spring onions with the cinnamon stick and a pinch of salt and pepper for 1 minute. Add the rice and chicken stock, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and cover the saucepan and cook for 10 minutes.
While the rice is cooking, add the dressing to the slaw and mix well.
After 10 minutes, uncover the rice and add the kidney beans. Cook for another couple of minutes until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is soft.
Distribute a bit of rice and beans on two plates, top with chicken and sauce and serve with pineapple slaw.
