Dinner Tonight: Extraordinary Roasted Chicken + Quick Peanut Butter Squares

 

If you follow our Dinner Tonight column, you know that it's intended to help us all get to the table more easily by giving a few recipe suggestions to spur on weeknight dinnertime. But today's Dinner Tonight isn't just about helping us get to the table—it's about encouraging us to stay there, to reflect about what we're eating, and about the connections we make when people share their recipes with us.

Earlier this week, sdebrango shared the sad news that we lost one of our longtime community members, Selma | Selma's Table (also known as Divasparkle), after a long battle with cancer. In addition to being an active member of our Food52 community, Selma, who lived in London, kept a blog called Selma's Table, where she shared "stories and recipes from a wonderful life," nurtured a sourdough starter named Twinkle, and kept an ongoing list of tips and tricks from her own kitchen. Tonight, we're making her Extraordinary Marinated and Roasted Chicken, Potatoes, and Chickpeas and her Quick Peanut Butter and Chocolate Squares—both Community Picks, and one a contest winner—and remembering her.

The Menu:

Click through on the recipe photos or titles to see (and save and print) the full recipes, or take advantage of our handy grocery list and overview below.

Extraordinary Marinated and Roasted Chicken, Potatoes, and Chickpeas

 

Quick Peanut Butter and Chocolate Squares

Grocery List:

(Organized by area of the market)

Serves 4 to 6 (with leftover cookies)

1 3/4 pounds (800 grams) potatoes
1 medium head of garlic
2 to 3 lemons
1 pint heavy cream
1 pint buttermilk
1 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves (leaves and stalks, chopped)
1 17.6-ounce container of Greek yogurt or tzatziki (or enough for each serving to have a generous dollop)
8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
2 sleeves (240g) saltine crackers
1 jar smooth peanut butter
1 cup (200g) chopped dark chocolate
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 15-ounce (400 grams) can chickpeas
1 small tube harissa paste (or to your taste)
2 teaspoons dry-roasted whole cumin seeds 

We are assuming you have butter, milk, sugar, vanilla, olive oil, brown sugar, mayonnaise, soy sauce, flaky sea salt, and chili flakes. If not, be sure to add them to your list!

Overview:

The night before (or, at the latest, as you’re heading out the door this morning), rinse and drain the chickpeas, peel and chop the potatoes and cut them into 3 inch chunks, and juice the lemons. Mix the marinade ingredients together in a medium bowl and place it in a large freezer bag with the chicken, chickpeas, potatoes, and garlic. Let it hang out in the fridge overnight.

An hour and a half before dinner, preheat the oven to 375° F (or 200° C). Pour the contents of the freezer bag into a large roasting pan. Season with salt and pepper, wrap tightly with foil, and cook for 1 hour while you make the peanut butter base for the peanut butter-chocolate bars. Press the mixture into a foil-lined pan and cool while you melt together the chocolate and cream. Pour it over the cooled peanut butter base, sprinkle with salt, and pop back in the fridge until firm. Set the table. Dinner’s only 15 minutes away!

Remove the foil from the chicken and cook for an additional 15 minutes before removing it from the oven and showering it with roasted cumin seeds, chopped coriander, and praise. Serve with big dollops of Greek yogurt (and tuck into generous portions of peanut butter-chocolate squares for dessert).

Photos by James Ransom