Crispy Chicken With Green Harissa Spinach Sauce & Brown Rice

Rinse your brown rice, add it to a pot with plenty of cold water and bring to the boil over a high heat

Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 20-25 min or until it's tender with a slight bite

Once cooked, drain, return it to the pot and keep covered until serving

Boil a kettle then heat a large, dry, wide-based pan (preferably non-stick) over a high heat

Pat your chicken thighs dry and season the skins with a generous pinch of salt, once hot, add the chicken thighs to the pan, skin-side down (cooking for 3 or more? Use 2 pans!)

Cook for 10 min or until the chicken skins have browned and crisped

Wash your spinach then add to a colander and pour boiled water all over it so that it starts to wilt

Rinse the wilted spinach under cold running water until it's cool

Once cool, squeeze as much water out of the spinach as you can

Peel and finely slice your brown onion[s]

Peel and roughly chop your garlic

Chop most of your coriander & parsley roughly (save a few leaves for garnish!)

Cut your green chilli[es] in half lengthways, deseed (scrape the seeds out with a teaspoon) and roughy chop

Add the wilted spinach to a food processor with the chopped garlic, chopped coriander & parsley (save the leaves for garnish!) and chopped green chilli (can't handle the heat? Go easy!)

Blitz until everything is very finely chopped, then add your tomato paste and ginger paste with 1 tbsp [1 1/2 tbsp] [2 tbsp] olive oil

Blitz until a smooth paste remains – this is your green harissa paste

Once the chicken skin is crispy, reduce the heat to medium-high and flip the chicken thighs

Add the sliced onion to the pan around the chicken, stirring the onion occasionally and cook for a further 8 min or until the onion has softened and caramelised and the chicken is cooked through (no pink meat!)

Tip: Add a splash of cold water if the onion starts to burn

Once cooked through, transfer the cooked chicken to a plate and reserve the pan – these are your crispy chicken thighs

Return the pan to a medium heat and add the green harissa paste with your ground cumin

Add 1/2 tsp [3/4 tsp] [1 tsp] sugar and a generous pinch of salt, give everything a good mix up and cook for 1-2 min or until fragrant

Once fragrant, add your chicken stock mix with 150ml [225ml] [300ml] cold water and cook for a final 2-3 min or until the sauce is hot and slightly thickened – this is your green harissa spinach sauce