South African (Magic) Chicken

You don't weigh or measure but just you stick it in the oven and it makes a good impression. Here is an example:

Make a mixture of onion soup, preferably brown (straight from the packet), a glass of mango chutney and curry. Cut up a chicken, paste with the mixture and put in the oven at 175°C/350°F covered with tin foil, shiny side inside. That takes about 10 minutes.

Leave it in the oven for an hour, then uncover and leave another half hour to brown.

Serve with green beans (use deep frozen) and rice, brown or white. I also like to add a butternut, peeled and cut into pieces + just cooked in water with a bit of salt as a second vegetable. You cook butternut like potatoes actually – test with a knife to see if it is soft; butternut remains firm like potatoes and doesn't fall apart like squash. The most work here is cutting up and peeling the butternut. Otherwise it is hardly any.

The good thing is you can prepare this a little in advance so people don't see how you do it.

When you serve, the colours look nice together – green beans, orange butternut, white or brown rice and the chicken. And it is very nice. And makes a very good impression on the cook.

you can choose whether you want to use spicy mango chutney or mild, both are good; when I don't have mango chutney at home – happens – I have also already used peach chutney, onion chutney, peach jam (add some salt in that case and maybe some cayenne pepper, always a good option as it blooms nicely in a dish and gives a good flavour)

Dorothée