Picnic food (indoor version)

I think we needed this bank holiday, you know. I was dreading it, but I've been having fun watching theatre productions (Fleabag, Amsterdam, Jane Eyre), films (Etre et Avoir, Brooklyn), listening to more of the Headingley Test, and even reading a bit. I guess we've all been trying to keep things ticking over, so a few days where there's nothing to tick? Welcome.

I fancied cooking something a bit fun, too. I'm not a great project cook, but days off without plans are good for fiddling around. And I wanted to do something from New Kitchen Basics, the cookbook I bought just as lockdown was locking. It's Picnic Chicken, and it's very doable with limited fresh stuff. (I wouldn't say it went perfectly, btw. But it's tasty and cheerful.) This week, if you're keeping track of my weird menu planning, is chicken n fish week, following veganish and mostly veggie.

WARNING THIS RECIPE REQUIRES MARINADING. By order of Hannah, a Confined Kitchen friend.

Messy but tasty

In a perfect world you'll need:
Boneless chicken thighs (2 per person)
Breadcrumbs
Smoked paprika
Thyme or rosemary
Plain yoghurt
Oil
Seasoning
Garlic
Parmesan

There's plenty there that you could switch out as needed.  I had all of it, though what fresh thyme I had left was dessicated and I turned out to have minuscule remains of dried stuff too, so mine wasn't all that herby. Should have picked up more parental rosemary last week.

 Essentially, there are three things you need to do:

1) Marinade some hefty chunks of chicken, eg half thighs, ideally in yoghurt, paprika, garlic and herbs. Minimum 4 hours, up to 24. The flavour develops, apparently, but as I only did about 6 hours I can't fully confirm.

We have spoken before about the unphotogenicity of yoghurt marinades

2) Make some tasty breadcrumbs, with more paprika, herbs, seasoning and a little parmesan.

Not all that photogenic either

3) Preheat the oven to 200deg/Gas 6 and get a baking tray ready. Swipe the yoghurty chicken bits through the breadcrumbs and into a frying pan with plenty of oil on a medium heat. Aim for 2 mins per side (mine burned, as you see - this is definitely a recipe for scraping burnt crunchy bits off the pan. Not a bad thing), then put them onto the baking tray. Give them c10 mins in the oven.

Delicious eaten warm, but also cheerfully good cold - hence the picnic label. Not a time for picknicking, but on a sunny warm evening it's nice to sit down to some tasty cold leftover chicken.

I did some of my usual roast tomatoes in this oven too, recipe merely balsamic, oil, sugar, salt, ground cumin.Yum. Not perfect with the chicken, which went better with some frozen peas and leftover herbs, but never a bad thing to have handy.  Lemon is good. Lemon is always good. I really hope I can get some more lemons next week. (Meep.)

Garlic? Well, a little.