Lilly Higgins: Coriander chicken

My younger sister Rosie is much more organised than I am when it comes to preparing meals. She always seems to have chicken marinading, vegetables prepped or some sort of plan, whereas I am usually mixing a huge batch of sauerkraut or baking biscuits when it’s almost dinner time.

I spend most of my day preparing, talking or writing about food, but that can sometimes mean haphazard mealtimes.

The best day to call to my house is when I’m styling and photographing food. Several different dishes are done and they all need to be eaten.

I sometimes remember to freeze some of these for the days when I am writing, but they usually just get eaten on the day by someone.

I would love to have a set menu for the week, where everything would be very predictable and dinner would be on the table well ahead of bath time.

I always have something on the table by 5pm, so usually the boys start circling about 10 minutes before then, smelling the air for any promise of dinner.

This is one of Rosie’s recipes, which she makes at least once a week. Now I have started to make it regularly, too, and everyone loves it. She uses mint but I have used coriander. It would be lovely with tarragon, too.

I have cooked mine on a tray in the oven, but she grills hers in the George Foreman. This chicken would cook beautifully on a barbecue.

You can chop everything finely and crush the garlic, but I use a Nutribullet – a high-powered blender – to make a smooth marinade and blend everything finely. That way there are no crispy, burned herbs or pieces of garlic, and the flavour permeates the chicken. Simply place everything in a Ziploc bag the night before, for a few hours at least, and then place on a tray and into the oven.

The chicken doesn’t dry out when cooked like this and it tastes fantastic in a soft wrap or with some salads or couscous.

I have doubled the amount of yoghurt marinade so that half can be reserved and used as a sauce to serve it with. This sauce is great with lamb, too, or drizzled over a salad.

Mighty little nigella seeds are among my favourite things to scatter over a finished dish. For such tiny seeds, they pack a strong punch and have a distinctive taste: a mixture of toasted onion, oregano and black pepper. They are also known as kalonji or black cumin, and are often added to naan bread or used to flavour curries or vegetable dishes. Keep an eye out for them at Middle Eastern or health food shops.

CORIANDER CHICKEN: SERVES 4

Ingredients
500ml Greek yoghurt
1 lemon, juiced
2 cloves of garlic
25g coriander
Pinch of sea salt
750g or 4 chicken breasts
2tbs nigella seeds

Method
Place the yoghurt, lemon juice, garlic and coriander in a blender and blitz until smooth. Alternatively, crush the garlic and finely chop the coriander and mix everything. Taste for seasoning: usually a pinch of sea salt is enough.

Set aside 200ml of the mix to keep as a sauce for serving with the chicken. It will have thinned down quite a bit, but just cover it and place in the fridge and it will thicken up again.

Lay the chicken breasts one by one on a piece of grease-proof paper and cover with another piece of paper. Use a rolling pin to gently flatten the meat so it’s all the same thickness and will cook evenly. Alternatively, you can butterfly open the chicken breast so that it’s an even thickness. Place the chicken in the bag with the marinade and ensure everything is well coated.

Leave in the fridge for an hour or two – or overnight if you can. Any time will make a huge difference.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Line a baking tray with foil and tip the chicken and all of the marinade on to the tray. Bake for 35 minutes, basting with the marinade halfway through.

Once cooked through, serve each chicken breast sliced with a drizzle of sauce and a scattering of nigella seeds.