Here’s a dish Mrs J can recommend both for great taste and for ease of preparation. And for the colour!

The recipe is inspired by chicken “Qdr”. How can one not be intrigued by a dish named “qdr”! It sounds positively Klingon. Irresistible. Mrs J found herself trying out ways to pronounce “qdr” the whole time while she was cooking.

Since the dish contains saffron it’s perhaps not the cheapest dinner you’ll ever make, but the rest of the ingredients are really standard. Mrs J is thinking about eventually experimenting with replacing the saffron with some other spice. But not today.

Start with browning portion sized cuts of chicken on the bone in some olive oil in an oven proof pot. (Mrs J is making dinner for herself and Mr J only tonight, so this recipe is for two hungry people.)

Regular qdr, apparently, calls for chicken breast cut in cubes that cooks on through the whole process. Mrs J didn’t fancy that, so we’re kind of freestyling already. Just brown the skin on both sides, season with salt and black pepper, then take the chicken out and set to the side for later.

In the pot, add one large finely sliced onion and two sliced cloves of garlic. Let the onions go golden on medium heat. Then add 5 dl of double strong chicken stock. Mrs J prefers to add stronger stock rather than adding too much straight up salt later. Toss in half a stick of cinnamon. Add the zest and the juice of a small lemon. Finally, add 0.3g of saffron.

Peel about 250g of potatoes and cut down to bite size. Get about the same volume of drained canned chickpeas. Add the lot to the pot and give a stir making sure it’s brought to the boil.

Add back the chicken on top. The chicken should not sink into the stew, so that the top skin remains crisp.

Put the pot in the oven at 175°C for 30 min, then turn the heat down to 150 and leave it in the oven for another 15 min. When done, add some parsley.

Serve on deep plates. Once you’ve lifted out the chicken and thrown away the cinnamon stick, give the stew a stir. It should have thickened somewhat naturally from the potatoes and chickpeas.

If you like it thicker you can add a little bit of maizena flour.