Maple Chicken 'n' Ribs

For weekends when my father comes to dinner, I'm always on the look out for easy baking recipes where I can simply marinate the meat and let the oven do the cooking. Here's a recipe I saw on Nigella's website which caught my eye - maple, spices and apple juice sound like a lovely combination for meats. 

This chicken and ribs combo also reminds me of eating at Tony Romas and I used to enjoy this combo very much. 

The chicken and ribs turned out to be flavourful - a lovely combination of the sweetness of maple syrup, aroma of the spices and tartness of the apple juice. I'm happy to have discovered another delicious and simple marinade recipe.

Maple Chicken 'n' Ribs (Serves 8)

Recipe by Nigella

Ingredients

• 12 pork spare ribs
• 12 chicken thighs with skin and bone still on (I used skinless thighs)

Marinade ingredients

• 250 ml apple juice (as sharp as possible)
• 4 tablespoons maple syrup*
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce (I used 1 tbsp)
• 2 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick (halved)
• 6 cloves garlic (unpeeled)
• 4 cloves (my own addition)

Method

• Put the ribs and chicken pieces in a couple of large freezer bags or into a dish.
• Add the remaining ingredients, squelching everything together well, before sealing the bag or covering the dish.
• Leave to marinate in the fridge overnight or up to two days.
• When the marinating time is up, take the dish out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6/400ºF.
• Pour the contents of the freezer bag into one or two large roasting tins (making sure the chicken is skin-side up), place in the oven and cook for about an hour and a quarter, by which time everything should be sticky and glossed conker-brown.
• Additional information - for gluten free use tamari instead of soy sauce.

Note: I used half the marinade recipe with 8 pieces of chicken and ribs

* I used Grade B Organic Maple syrup from www.iherb.com. They deliver all over the world - use NAD207 to get US$10 off your first order.

This is for Cook Like A Star hosted by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Anuja from Simple Baking.