BBQ sticky chicken with lemon & garlic
Cooked in the oven, finished on the Barbie
8 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin on
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
1 whole bulb garlic
2 lemons
5 sprigs of fresh rosemary, tied together
1 good handful rocket or pea shoots, washed and spun-dry
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Get your barbecue on about an hour before you want to cook and preheat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.
Season the chicken well with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil. Get a big double layer of tin foil and pop the thighs in the middle with the bulb of garlic. Chop one of your lemons in half and pop this in too. Wrap the chicken up then put your foil parcel on a baking tray and into the hot oven for 35 minutes until the chicken pulls away easily from the bone – if you have to tug at it it's not ready, so pop it back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so.
When done, carefully take the chicken out off the oven and unwrap it. By this time your barbecue should be at the perfect temperature – a good medium heat – so get your chicken on to start charring.
While this is happening, get on with your sticky glaze. Carefully, clove by clove, squeeze the sweet roasted garlic out of its papery skin into a pestle and mortar. Carefully squeeze in the juice of your roasted lemon halves too. Give this a good bash up and season with salt and pepper then add a good lug of olive oil and mix until you have a thick paste. Now squeeze in the juice of the other lemon so you get 2 levels of lemon flavor – one sweet and roasted, the other fresh and zingy.
Use your rosemary sprigs to brush the paste onto the chicken, basting and turning for about 10 minutes so you are building up a lovely layer of sticky garlicky sweetness and a wonderful golden brown colour.
Once you're happy with the chicken, use tongs to move it to a nice platter then top with the rocket or pea shoots and any remaining marinade and tuck in!
