I've been recently singing the praises of UK food magazines - loving them. I've gone through and put post-it's on all the recipes that I want to try. I'm trying this one for the first time and of course I've gone and changed it up. It's saying something about a recipe when a meat dish inspires me. The reality is that I have trouble just doing a meat dish by itself. I need to stick other stuff in there - veggies specifically. I can't just roast a chicken without stuffing it with veggies (onion and garlic and lemon) and putting more veggies underneath it (carrot and potato). This is why I love the concept of casseroles - it's all there in one tasty dish. No fussing with multiple pots and all that crap.

Anyway, this dish is easy - if I tell ya, EASY. Marinade for as long as you wish really. I left mine for about an hour and it came out beautifully but I'm guessing that an overnight wouldn't hurt at all.

Also, I didn't use chicken thighs as it calls for in the recipe. I'm thinking about how eating a whole chicken is just all around better than eating just parts of the chicken. I bought a beautiful organic chicken on the weekend and cut'r up. Wasn't that hard either. Once you know where the breast is, the leg, the thigh, the wing, you can pretty much get chopping and do not a half bad job. It was actually kinda cool having all the different parts to choose from when filling our plates. I love the idea of meat cooking on top of veggies and with this recipe you get the juice from the chicken and the flavour of the marinade soaked up. Yum.

The real deal breaker for this recipe is that it gave me another opportunity to use the FAB honey that I got on a trip to Hawkestone. This is the stuff that won 6th place in this year's Royal Winter Fair. It made the dish quite honestly. The kids loved this one - We ALL loved this one.

Sticky Tamari and honey chicken thighs (BBC Good Food magazine)

serves 4

8 skin on chicken thighs (I used one whole chicken in pieces)

2 tbsp clear honey (I didn't measure, truth be told)

For the marinade:

2 tsp veg. oil

2 tbsp tamari

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp Hoisin sauce

3 tbsp sherry or rice wine (I skipped this 'cause I didn't have)

5 tbsp stem ginger (I had to use ground ginger - about 2 tsp)

6 cloves garlic, crushed

1 - 2 red chillies, seeded and chopped (I just threw in a few red chili flakes)

In the dish:

3 med. carrots chopped large

2 small to med. potato, chopped large (I actually used celeriac)

1 1/2 rib of celery chopped large

1/2 a med. onion chopping in chunks

In a large bowl put together the marinade - check for taste. Place chicken in the marinade and let it sit, refrigerated for at least a few hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In the bottom of a largish baking dish, place the chopped veggies. Place the marinaded chicken over the veggies and pour the marinade over the whole thing. Drizzle the honey over the top of the chicken (You may want to drizzle half the honey and then drizzle some more for the last 10 minutes of baking ;-). Bake for 45 - 50 min. or until the chicken is done.

Serve with wilted greens and rice or whatever you want... it's just that good!