Very vinegary chicken with warm chicken fat bread and peppers recipe

If there is one thing that is better than warm, tangy, soggy and crunchy in all the right places bread, it’s bread that has also had chicken fat dripping onto it while it cooks. Enter this week’s recipe. You’ll pack the vinegary bread into an oven dish with romano peppers and garlic, then sit chicken legs on top, their skins sprinkled with more vinegar, salt and dried oregano. Everything should sit tightly together in the dish – don’t worry about things not crisping, you’ll separate everything for a final crisp at the end.

The finished result is the kind of dish that’ll have everyone diving in to pick gnarly bits of bread and pepper off the side of the pan. I’m having it with a green salad dressed simply with lemon, and probably an unholy amount of aioli.

Timings

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 50 minutes

Serves

4

Ingredients

• 230g stale ciabatta, roughly torn

• 200ml red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

• 6 tbsp olive oil

• 4 romano peppers, sliced down the middle

• 4 chicken legs

• 1 heaped tsp dried oregano

• 4 garlic cloves, bashed

• A handful of basil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/gas 7.

2. Put the torn ciabatta into a big bowl and pour over all but about 50ml of the vinegar. Use tongs or your hands to toss the bread in the vinegar and leave to sit for 10 minutes. Then add a big pinch of salt and half the olive oil and toss again.

3. Put the bread in a large oven dish. Tuck the peppers in between. They might poke out of the dish – that’s fine, let them. Place the chicken legs on top, pour the remaining vinegar over the chicken, then the rest of the olive oil, and the oregano. Sprinkle plenty of salt on the chicken skin. Tuck the garlic cloves between everything.

4. Put the chicken in the oven and cook for 40 minutes, then take it out, transfer the chicken legs to a baking sheet and put both dishes back in the oven for ten minutes. You want the bread that has been sitting under the chicken to have a chance to crisp up a little.

5. Remove both dishes from the oven and leave to sit for ten minutes. Pour any excess chicken fat on the baking sheet over the bread and peppers.

6. Finish with torn basil. Serve warm.

The Art of Friday Night Dinner by Eleanor Steafel (RRP £26). Buy now for £19.99 at books.telegraph.co.uk or call 0844 871 1514.