Melissa Hemsley’s Filipino chicken with mango-tomato salsa recipe

“My mum calls this ‘any way chicken’ because you can make the chicken any way: I like cooking it in the oven (so I can forget about it); my mum likes to make it on the hob (to keep more of the sauce); and my boyfriend, Henry, likes grilling it on the BBQ (so it’s smoky and crispy),” says Melissa Hemsley.

“However you do it, I recommend making extra so that you can shred it into soups, wraps, noodles and salads later in the week.”

Filipino chicken with mango-tomato salsa recipe

Ingredients:
(Serves 4)

4 large chicken thighs, skin on and bone in (about 600g)
Sea salt and black pepper
2 spring onions, finely sliced at an angle, to serve

For the Filipino-style sauce:
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4tbsp apple cider vinegar
2tbsp tamari or soy sauce
2tsp–1tbsp fish sauce or 2tsp extra tamari or soy sauce
2tbsp (coconut) sugar or maple syrup
2 star anise
¼tsp chilli flakes (or to taste)

For the mango-tomato salsa:
1 big handful of fresh coriander
100g cherry tomatoes, quartered
100g peeled ripe mango, pineapple or stone fruit, diced
2cm fresh ginger, finely grated
½ garlic clove, finely grated
1 jalapeño or other chilli, deseeded and diced
Juice of 1½ limes
4 spring onions or 1 small red onion, finely diced
2tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
A dash of hot sauce (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to fan 220°C/gas mark 9. If using a BBQ, get it going now.

2. Mix all the sauce ingredients together. Place the chicken thighs in an ovenproof dish big enough to arrange the pieces about two centimetres apart (but not so big that you lose all the sauce as it cooks off in the oven), then add the sauce, coating each piece of chicken well in the mixture and leave for a few minutes, if you like.

3. Place the chicken thighs skin-side up in the dish, sprinkle a little salt and pepper over each one and roast for 25 minutes or until well cooked and the juices run clear when pierced with a knife.

4. Meanwhile, make the salsa. Roughly chop the leaves of the coriander and finely chop the stalks, then add to a serving bowl with all the other ingredients, mix together well and leave to sit for 20 minutes (while the chicken is cooking).

5. Serve the chicken scattered with the spring onions and with the salsa on the side.

Feel Good by Melissa Hemsley is published by Ebury Press, priced £22. Photography by Lizzie Mayson. Available now.