Salsa Verde Chickpeas & Roast Chicken Thighs

I absolutely love beans and chickpeas - they’re rich, creamy, a plant based source of protein and they’re fantastic with so many different flavours. Mash them. blend them, braise them, make them into a sauce, they’re endlessly versatile.

I ate a version of these Salsa Verde chickpeas at the excellent Camberwell Arms recently, they’d paired them with cime de rapa and roast lamb which was delicious but for me it was the chickpeas that really shone and I wanted to recreate.

You could also make this plant based using olive oil in place of the chicken fat, vegetable stock rather than chicken, and leaving out the anchovies for the salsa verde. Up the amount of greens with more broccoli and asparagus, but ONLY when in season (I have a horror of out of season asparagus).

Salsa verde is one of all time faves and go to sauces - dollop it on meat or fish, roast potatoes, grains, or do as I do and just eat it with a spoon.

Serves 2

Ready in about an hour

Ingredients:

  • 2 boneless, skin-on high welfare chicken thighs 

  • 2 large garlic cloves

  • 1 jar (660g) Bold Bean Co queen chickpeas

  • 150g purple sprouting broccoli

  • 250ml chicken stock

  • 1 small glass (drinkable) white wine

  • Zest of ½ lemon and a little lemon juice to taste

  • Salt, olive oil


Salsa Verde

  • 20g flat leaf parsley, stalks and all

  • 20g mint - leaves picked, discard the stalks

  • a few sprigs basil, stalks and all

  • 2 anchovies in oil

  • 1 tbsp capers, drained

  • ½ tsp Dijon mustard

  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

  • 3 tbsps good quality olive oil

  • a big pinch Maldon salt

Method:

  1. First make the salsa verde by blending all the ingredients except the oil in a food processor to form a coarse paste. Add the olive oil and blend again - you don’t want it to be too fine, still a little chunky. Leave at room temperature while you make the rest of the dish.

  2. Preheat the oven to 190℃/180℃ fan. In an oven safe casserole or frying pan, heat 1 tbsp oil and sear the salted chicken thighs until brown and crispy skinned. Transfer to a small roasting dish and pop in the oven for 15 minutes or until the juices run clear.

  3. Peel and mince the garlic and cook in the chicken fat over a low heat for 1 minute, add the drained, rinsed chickpeas to the pan and coat in the remaining chicken fat. 

  4. Add the white wine and allow it to mostly bubble away. Add the chicken stock and simmer for 15 minutes until the liquid is reduced but still a little soupy.

  5. Meanwhile, trim the tough ends of the broccoli and slice lengthways down the stems. Heat a griddle or frying pan and char the broccoli over a high heat in a little olive oil until charred and tender but still with bite.

  6. Once the chicken is cooked, rest in a warm place. Pour any juices from the chicken pan into the chickpeas, slice the chicken. 

  7. Off the heat, stir the salsa verde, lemon zest and juice through the chickpeas and divide between two plates. Top with the charred broccoli and chicken.

Gemma Scott