Chicken with Peperonata and Corn and Bacon Salad

This is the sort of dish to cook when you can't be bothered doing anything too strenuous: a tender (read: fairly boring) cut of meat rubbed with spices and grilled, served with a salad and a sauce.

It's basic, rustic, and all kinds of flavourful.


I rubbed a chicken breast with some cracked fennel seeds, chilli flakes, lemon zest and salt and pepper, then grilled it on the BBQ. Beautiful spice rub, but I should've butterflied the chicken. I hate thick, uninteresting chicken breast.

The salad is just corn, bacon and mint. Fantastic flavour combination! Grilled a couple of cobs of corn on the BBQ, tossed through four rashers of bacon chopped and sauteed, then ripped up a small handful of mint.

The chunky sauce is peperonata, an Italian capsicum and tomato quick stew of sorts. Sweat half an onion in olive oil, add a couple of cloves of garlic, then a couple of chopped up capsicums. Cook with the lid on for around 15 minutes, then add three or four chopped tomatoes and some pepper, cook for another 5 minutes or so, then take the lid off and reduce 'til it's thick enough. Add a couple of splashes of red wine and serve! I half-followed Stephanie Alexander's recipe, but this is a pretty standard sauce.