We previously called this dish “prosciutto-wrapped chicken with lemons, spring onions and
potatoes”. This rather ponderous-sounding recipe comes from “Utterly delicious simple food”
by Belinda Jeffery. We made it on
8 February 2016 and
then, years later, on 25 September 2021. Since then we've been making it on an annual basis, but we're
still not quite there.
The original quantities didn't include enough potato, so this is already diverging from the
original. The original quantities were also very vague, and on 9 October 2022 I completely overhauled the recipe. I made more modifications on
7 October 2023 and 13 October 2024.
The current images show the version I made on 13 October 2024, where the thighs were much larger than normal.
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Slice the potatoes 5 mm thick. Place them in a baking dish, salting and peppering each
layer. Add the spring onions. Sprinkle with olive oil, cover with aluminium foil and
bake for 45 minutes.
Cut preserved lemon finely. Put chicken rolls, rosemary, thyme, crushed garlic and
preserved lemon in a big bowl. Add the lemon juice and olive oil. Mix and place over
the potatoes, then add the chicken rolls. Bake without the foil for a further 45
minutes until the meat temperature reaches 75°.
It has taken us some time to recognize the really important ingredient of this dish: not the
prosciutto, but the preserved
lemon. The original recipe didn't include nearly enough, and the current version is a
guess.
The other issue is that I think that the potatoes should be crispy, and too much liquid
detracts from that. As a result, I have reduced the amount of lemon juice.
