A little of what you fancy...

We've been on a bit of a decluttering mission again. While Karl has been building wardrobes in our bedroom, the room has got steadily more and more untidy. Today we started to put things right, hauling out everything from under the bed and from the other junk hidey-holes. We now has a pile of stuff to FreeCycle, and I took the debris to the tip this afternoon (escaping for some girlie shopping time as well - hooray!).

After abandoning our efforts for the day, some junk food seemed very appealing. I really don't like the idea of deep-frying very much of anything, but everyone craves those kinds of crunchy-textured foods occasionally. Chicken and chips is a bit of a favourite with all of us, and this way of oven-cooking it wins hands down with me. I've recently adapted the coating I use from plain flour to a semolina and cornflour mix after seeing Nigella Lawson use a similar coating on her new series Nigella Express. I generally use a ready-mixed Cajun spice blend for convenience, but you could use any seasonings you fancy. A mix of ground cumin and coriander, paprika and thyme or cayenne pepper are all good, though go easy on the latter!

Crisp Chicken

8 chicken drumsticks
2 tbsp fine semolina (or polenta works well, too)
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp Cajun seasoning (and see above)

Mix the semolina, cornflour and Cajun seasoning together in a large bowl. Turn the chicken pieces in this mixture to coat them, then place on a rack over a baking tray and cook at 200°c for 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the skin is browned and crisp.

I made some real oven chips to go with the chicken, then cut up some salad veg for a nice big pile of crudités. Ketchup and mayo on the table, lovely!