Lime-Spiced Griddled Chicken Thighs Recipe

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These grilled chicken thighs are full of tangy, bright citrus flavour, muddled with a little heat. Served with fragrant rice cooked with cardamom pods and cinnamon.Once marinated the chicken thighs take around 20 minutes to cook, so it is a quick meal to make if you do the prep the night before.

Ingredients

1 portion of garam masala marinade (see ingredients below)
4-6 chicken thighs
1 lime, quartered

Marinade ingredient

2 tsp garam masala
4 round shallots, peeled and halved
2 tsp fine sea salt
Juice of 1 lime
1 mild green chilli, stalk and seeds removed

Gently spiced rice ingredients

175g basmati rice
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamom pods
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 tbsp butter or ghee

Method

First make the marinade. In a small blender, blend together the shallots, salt, lime juice, garam masala and chilli.
Cut away the bones from the chicken thighs, leaving the skin. Place in a bowl or zip-seal food bag and pour over the marinade. Stir so the chicken is well covered, seal, and place in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Lightly oil a griddle pan, using bunched up kitchen roll or a pastry brush. On a medium heat, add the chicken thighs skin-side down - some marinade will cling to the chicken. Cook on 7-10 minutes on each side, until cooked through. A meat-thermometer should read a minimum of 72C at the thickest part. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes.
Whilst the chicken is cooking, prepare the rice. Place rice, cinnamon, cardamom and salt into a small pan. Pour over 400g water, and bring to a gentle boil. Cook for 10-12 minutes. Remove from heat and cover with a lid. Leave to rest for 5 minutes and stir in the butter or ghee.
Serve chicken together with the rice, a good sprinkle of coriander leaves, and lime segments.

About the author

Nicola Lando is the co-founder and CEO of Sous Chef, where she has spent more than a decade sourcing, tasting and selecting specialist ingredients, cookware and tableware from producers around the world.

She trained at Leiths and later completed a stage at a Michelin-starred London restaurant, experiences that helped shape Sous Chef’s original mission: to give home cooks access to the same exceptional ingredients used by professional chefs.

Today, Nicola leads much of Sous Chef’s product sourcing and ingredient selection, working directly with producers and travelling internationally to food fairs, farms, mills and manufacturers. She tastes thousands of products each year and has built deep expertise across storecupboard ingredients, olive oil, condiments, spices, preserved foods and specialist cooking ingredients.

She holds an olive oil sommelier certification from ESAO in Spain, Imperial Executive Education’s Certificate in Nutrition for Health: Evidence-Based Tools and Strategies certificate; as well as studying Food Safety and Control at University of Greenwich.

Nicola also writes recipes and ingredient guides for Sous Chef, combining practical cooking experience with first-hand knowledge from producers, suppliers and specialist food makers. Her work focuses on helping cooks understand how to choose better ingredients, use them well, and get more flavour from their cooking.