Orange marinated Chicken and roasted Veg with Orzo

 

We live with a vegetarian who is allergic to oranges. She is in Cape Town at the moment, and we miss her every day. However, I jumped at the chance of making a meal to this tune while I had the chance.

Since exams started, we have turned our sitting room into a Zone of Higher Intelligence. Files and notes are littered around a massive table, millions of tea cups and coloured kokis are dotted around a box of tissues for our winter sniffles. Glorious. We really needed a wholesome dinner, and a good dose of orange healthy goodness.

• 4 skinned chicken breasts
• 2 oranges
• ½ cup olive oil + more for drizzling
• 1 onion, cut into wedges
• 3 sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into small-ish chunks
• 4 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
• 15ml honey
• 4ml ground cumin
• 3ml paprika
• 250g orzo (pasta rice)
• handful fresh parsley

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
2. Cut the chicken breasts into strips and place in a non- metal bowl. Zest and juice one orange and add to the chicken along with the olive oil and salt and black pepper. Set aside.
3. Place the sweet potato chunks in a baking tray and rub with some olive oil. Roast at 200C for 15 minutes. Add the carrots, cumin, paprika and honey and mix well with some additional olive oil and seasoning. Roast for a further 30- 40 minutes until just tender and browning.
4. Heat a griddle pan until smoking hot. Grill the chicken breasts until back lines form, and add to the roast veg tray in the oven to cook through for 5 minutes or so.
5. While the chicken is on, cook the orzo in boiling, salted water until just done (about 10 minutes). Zest the second orange. When the orzo is cooked, add a dash of olive oil, some of the parsley and the orange zest.
6. Segment the second orange by cutting off all the peel and white pith, then hold in your left hand (unless, of course, you’re a leftie, I would never discriminate) and use a small sharp knife to separate each juicy segment from the membrane on either side.
7. Serve up the roast veg and chicken in bowls on the steaming orzo. Sprinkle the parsley and fresh orange segments on top.