Basque chicken with chickpeas and espelette pepper

Espelette is a town in South West France close to the Spanish border, an area known as French Basque country. It iss famous for the small red pepper named after the town. The dried and ground chilli has a wonderfully smoky flavour, not dissimilar to smoked paprika, but with a hint of citrus. It is so revered in it’s native region that it has replaced black pepper in all savoury dishes.

Serves: 4

2 kg free range chicken, cut into 8 pieces

400 g chickpeas, drained

1 onion, cut into thin wedges

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 lemon, sliced

150 ml white wine

150 ml chicken stock

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 sprigs rosemary, lightly bashed

2 tbsp clear honey

2 tsp espelette chilli pepper

salt

herb couscous and aioli, to serve

Preheat the oven to 200c. Wash and dry the chicken pieces and place in a large roasting tin. Arrange the chickpeas, onions, garlic, lemon and rosemary around the chicken, drizzle with 2 tablespoons of oil and season with salt. Add the wine and stock to the pan and transfer to the oven. Roast for 30 minutes.

Warm the honey, espelette chilli pepper and the remaining oil together until runny and drizzle over the chicken. Return the oven and roast for a further 10 minutes until the chicken is browned. Serve with couscous and aioli.