Bill Granger's Baked Chicken with Lemon, Potato and Green Olives

Wow!  I made this dish in February 2024!  Crikey, how time flies.  This is a dish from Bill Granger, well-known and beloved Aussie cook who died way too young on Christmas Day 2023.  We ate at his Bondi restaurant several times over the years, on our trips down south.  And we always had a good feed there :=)  His scrambled eggs were legendary - nearly equal parts eggs to cream!  (I posted my version of his eggs in Feb 2024, too!)  Must have been a good month :=)

Have just been to the Japanese shop again!  Mmm, did I buy a few too many Pocky sticks, and matcha biscuits?  Well, maybe.  And they've opened a Japanese deli next door, and there'll be a cafe as well soon.  And of course, can't forget the Asian shop nearby - with even more delights!  My pantry is groaning.  I remember Mr P.'s SIL diving into our pantry one day, and being dragged out by her hubby.  She thought it was full of fascinating stuff - and how right she was - hehehe :=)

    

how good does this look?  Yep, heaps good!

Serves 4:

ingredients:

1kg/2.2lb potatoes like Desiree (a good roasting tater, as Samwise Gamgee would say)

1 red onion, cut into big chunks or wedges (peeled of course, silly!)

75g./2.6 oz green olives

1 lemon, sliced

50g./1.8 oz pancetta, or bacon, or capers or caperberries, or all of 'em

2 dried or fresh bay leaves  -  I used 6!

1 Tbs tomato paste

1 Tbs balsamic vinegar  (but use whatever you have; I used cranberry balsamic)

120mL/4 oz chicken stock  (pour it into a jug for easy stirring)

1.2kg/2.6lb chicken thighs (I used skinless, and boneless)  see Notes

1 Tbs EV olive oil

sea salt flakes

freshly ground black pepper, to taste - maybe 10-12 grinds?

1/2-1 tsp chilli flakes  (optional)

yep, it's taters!

and a lemon

Method:

Whack on your oven to 180C/350F to heat up

Chop the taters (potatoes) into chunks (you choose the size), and tip them into a roasting pan (I like to line my baking dish with baking paper = easy cleaning)

Then chuck the onion chunks, olives, lemon slices, pancetta and bay leaves over the potato pieces

Now comes the tomato paste and vinegar - which you stir into your jug of chicken stock - give it a good mix!

And pour this mixture over your veg. in the tray/pan

Your chicken pieces go on top of the veg. and the stock in the pan

Then drizzle the EVoo over it all, and season with salt, pepper (and chilli flakes if using)

Shove the dish into the oven, and bake for 50 minutes

Now take it out of the oven, remove the chicken pieces, and crank up your oven to 220C/430F

Place the dish back into the oven with the veg. mix, and bake for a further 10-15 minutes till the veg. looks well-coloured and delicious

The chicken goes back into the pan, on top of the veg., for serving  (Bill says to take out the bay leaves first ... hehehe)

red onion, natch!

you know what these are, my friends :=)

Notes:

Bill says to use a 1.7kg/3.7 lb chicken, jointed - but why not buy 'em in pieces already, I say? :=)  And I cut 'em up into 3 or 4 pieces

I'd suggest throwing in a few whole cloves of garlic too!

ingredients gathered 

veg. in the baking dish

on go the chicken pieces

out comes the cooked chook

and back go the veg.

and done!

eat up!

delicious!

juicy, salty - yum!

green olives

In My Kitchen - October 2025

Phew!  September was a busy month.  And I have a feeling that October will roar on by too.  My talk to the Historical Society went well (I think), and you can view it on YouTube, my friends!  (Just email me, and I can send you the link.)

Mr P. will be going in for treatment in October, so neither of us are looking forward to that.  But here's hoping it's all for the best.  He is a very positive person, and I think that helps.  He has been disabled since his young manhood, so it seems bloody unfair to add this!

the cuz painting the (back) eastern wall!

Not in my kitchen, but underneath :=)  The cuz came up from Melbourne, expressly to help us paint the back wall.  So very kind of her.  And it looks so good!  Thanks cuz!  (That's a mango tree on the left, an olive tree on the right, and a persimmon, and a jaboticaba tree on the left-hand side of the house.  And of course, the old Hills Hoist on the left.  Who needs a clothes dryer when you have the sun?)

In My Kitchen:

a new electric jug

Mr P. cannot lift a jug of water, so we have this one on a gimbal.  It means he can just push the handle forward, and the water falls into his mug.  A brilliant invention!

had to buy some more of this!

and this!

the Asian store was calling my name ... again ...

a (very) belated birthday gift from a lovely friend

and I bought this!  I adore Emma Bridgewater pottery

I made wholegrain mustard for Mr P.'s sandwiches

a wonderful friend brought this back from Singapore for me!

Guess who?  Yep, it's Tintin!  There is a big Tintin shop in Singapore (literally called The Tintin Shop!), so our dear friend Madame M. got this beauty for me when she was there recently.

I made toasted muesli

I ordered some goodies from Tasmania

and I made rice pudding - with rose and cream, and brown sugar

and the curveball!

I bought this wonderful crabby palette from Jacklyn Foster Art.  I love her foodie art pieces.  And I bought a new iphone cover with her crab on it, too!  Yep, the crab is my star sign.

and a very sneaky extra curveball - the phone cover

c. Sherry M.

Be a part of our friendly IMK community by adding your post here too - everybody welcome!  We'd love to have you visit.  Tell us about your kitchen (and kitchen garden) happenings over the past month.  Dishes you've cooked, preserves you've made, herbs and veg. in your garden, kitchen gadgets, and goings-on.  And one curveball is welcome - whatever you fancy; no need to be kitchen-related.  

The link is open from the first of the month to midnight on the thirteenth of the month, every month.

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The Annoyed Thyroid

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Capsicum Salad with Capers and Red Onion (And Salmon Cakes)

Crikey, I made this one for Cookbook club waaay back in early 2024!  Procrastinate?  Nope, not me.  This is my take on a recipe called Raw Capsicum salad with capers and red onion, from The Food Saver's A-Z by Alex Elliott-Howery and Jaimee Edwards. 

But as you can see, I decided to go for the roasted capsicums (in a jar), rather than the raw capsicum.  When I was a uni. student back in the day, I moved into a share house with some vegans and vegetarians.  I had never eaten capsicum in my life (mum and dad were the meat and 2 veg. types - think of boiled potatoes and tinned peas), so I got to try it for the first time.  I did NOT like it, my friends, but I was determined to, so I just kept on trying it till I did like it.  As I have done with many foods (and things) in my life :=)  Ah yes, a free bit of life advice there for you all - hehehe ...

salad, fish cakes and potatoes

Serves 2-3 as a side, or 3-4 as a main with the fish cakes:

Ingredients:

1 x 260g./9 oz jar of roasted/chargrilled capsicum, drained to give you 160g./c. 6 oz roasted capsicum  see Notes

1 small red onion

2 small cloves of garlic

1 Tbs EV olive oil

1 Tbs vinegar (they say apple cider, but use white wine vinegar or whatever you fancy, or have lying around the pantry)

a big pinch of salt, and of sugar

as much freshly-ground black pepper as you like - maybe 10 grinds?

some paprika, they say - half a teaspoon, a whole teaspoon? - you choose

1 Tbs capers

an amount of chopped dill or parsley - you know what I chose - parsley! how much? 1-2 Tbs? or more or less, as you please

Salmon cakes - 2-3 for each person - Yes I used frozen ones!

and 500g./18 oz baby potatoes   see Notes

        red capsicum/pepper

red/Spanish onion

Method:

Cut the capsicum/peppers into strips or chunks as you please

Finely slice the red onion into strips (or chunks)

Place the capsicum and onion into a medium-sized salad bowl

Add the EV olive oil, vinegar, salt, sugar and black pepper to the bowl

Don't forget to add the finely sliced/chopped garlic 

Add your paprika and capers

Throw on the fresh herbs when serving with the fish cakes and potatoes

I bought baby potatoes, that I sliced (not too) thinly, then tossed in salt, pepper and a wee bit of EV olive oil   see Notes

I microwaved 'em for 3 minutes, and then baked for around 20 minutes at 220C/430F, till tender

The salmon cakes came out of my freezer; I baked them as per the packet instructions

you guessed it!

Notes:

The authors suggest using one whole raw capsicum, sliced thinly but they give jarred, roasted capsicum in brine as an option - which I took!

I bought baby potatoes (which come with butter and herbs), which I sliced fairly thinly, before tossing in oil etc

yep, it's them!

ingredients gathered

capsicum, onion and capers in the bowl

serve with salmon cakes, baked potato slices, and a dash of Kewpie mayo

Coconut, Lemon and Raspberry Cake

Do you love coconut, and lemon, and raspberry?  Yes indeed I do!  This is a Chelsea Winter cake, from her cookbook Everyday Delicious.  Chelsea is a Kiwi cook and writer; she won MasterChef New Zealand in 2012, and has gone on to write seven cookbooks.  And have a couple of children in the meantime (and several husbands).  Busy gal!

My most obvious change to her recipe is to use raspberries rather than passionfruit for the icing (which made it a pretty pinky-orange colour).  Not a massive fan of passionfruit myself.  Is it the texture, or the seeds?  Not sure.  But the raspberries make this cake very delicious.

Passionfruit does remind me of childhood though - everyone had a vine growing on their fence, and an Aussie (and Kiwi) pavlova ain't a pavlova without the fresh, bright-yellow, seedy stuff dripping over the top of the puffy meringue base.

pretty in pink :=)

Makes 1 large cake:

ingredients:

Cake:

130g./4.6 oz/1.5 cups desiccated coconut  see Notes

1 x 400 mL/13.5 oz can coconut milk

1.5 Tbs lemon juice

zest of 3 lemons

250g./9 oz butter, softened (not melted)

550g./19 oz/2.5 cups caster sugar   see Notes

4 large eggs, at room temp. (if you remember to take 'em out sooner)

1 tsp vanilla extract or paste

450g./16 oz/3 cups plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

fruity raspberry delicious!

Fruity Icing:

50g./1.8 oz butter

450g./16 oz/3 cups icing sugar   see Notes

2 punnets fresh raspberries (250g./9 oz), or the pulp of 10 passionfruit, or half a cup of passionfruit pulp in syrup

1-2 Tbs lemon juice

shaved coconut, to decorate

lemon        

Method:

On goes your oven to 170C/340F to heat up

Butter and flour the sides of a 24cm springform pan, and line the base with baking paper    see Notes

Grab yourself a medium bowl, into which you place the coconut, coconut milk, lemon juice and zest - give it a good stir, and let it mellow together for 10 minutes or so

In another bowl, you cream the butter and sugar together till thick and pale (this can take up to 5 minutes)

Now beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla

And now we're onto bowl number 3!  Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda in this bowl  

Whisk the flour mixture, and add it to the butter/sugar mixture - and don't forget to throw in the coconutty mixture too!

Now give it all a healthy stir - you know what I always say - firm but not too madly; just combine it nicely together

Pour/spoon the batter into your prepared cake pan, and give it a gentle tap/smoothing over

So now bake this cake in the lower part of your oven, for 85 minutes, or till your cake skewer comes out clean from its cakey heart

Don't forget to test it after 75 minutes, which is all mine took

Let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack

Yep, here comes the icing!:

Beat the butter and icing sugar together in a bowl, till light and fluffy, then stir in the fruit - I mixed one punnet of the raspberries in well, till I had a gorgeous pinky icing

You can add more butter or icing sugar, till you get the texture you like   see Notes 

Spoon/pour on the icing over your cooled cake, and throw on the shaved coconut, and the other punnet of raspberries (or passionfruit pulp)

coconutty!

Notes:

Not a massive fan of desiccated coconut; I often use shaved or even moist coconut flakes (but watch out for the sugar in those)

I only used 500g. caster sugar!

What is a cup of icing sugar?  Good question - anything from 125g. to 150g. it seems, so use a bit less if you wish, than the 450g.  I ended up adding an extra 50g. of icing sugar, as my icing was a bit runnier than I liked

Chelsea says you can use a 24cm up to a 27cm cake tin, but she doesn't mention different baking times, except to say watch out at 75 minutes - which I did!

(Righto, here's my wee bit of unsolicited advice for all you bakers out there - buy yourself a metal cake skewer!  Toothpicks were never invented for testing cakes, and think of the trees!!  IYKYK ...)

ingredients gathered

putting together the coconutty mixture

mixing the batter

ready for the oven at 170C/340F

now let it cool right down

start on your icing now

and beat it up - but nicely :=)

such a picture!  a pinky delight

one guess!  yep, a Kiwi

Oh, and please take heed, folks - a kiwi is a bird, or a person from New Zealand.  Remember to add the word 'fruit' to the end when you're about to decorate your pavlova; otherwise we think you're going to chop up this fella, and throw him/her on your cake!

(Photo from the Auckland War Memorial Museum collection.)