WHAT’S COOKING: Roast bone-in chicken breasts with a chimichurri dry rub

I wanted to roast whole chicken breasts in the larger air fryer oven. Not breast fillets – bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts that could be roasted just as you would the whole bird.

I thought of chimichurri. But chimichurri is wet, and I wanted the skin to be golden and crisp. So I rethought chimichurri instead.

I first made chimichurri in June 2019. I know this because I’ve just googled my recipe, and it was published as one of the first “Lockdown Recipes of the Day”, which is how these regular TGIFood recipes started. My whole food writing life changed right then, during lockdown, and all that has followed.

I decided to publish a recipe every day while we were bunkered in our houses and trying to think of things to make with what we had in the crisper and cupboards.

Chimichurri comes from Argentina and Uruguay and it’s fresh. You don’t blend it – you chop and stir. Its chief ingredient is parsley, followed by oregano (dried, actually, because of that woody flavour it attains once dried), garlic and chilli, often red pepper flakes but sometimes fresh chilli. There’s also red wine vinegar, olive oil, pepper and coarse salt.

For this recipe I tried to keep the relative quantities more or less proportionate to traditional chimichurri. Lots of dried parsley, not quite as much dried oregano – 3 to 2. I used garlic powder, and instead of red pepper flakes I added some pimenton, the smoked paprika that I’ve grown to love lately.

I left out the red wine vinegar, but I used olive oil to coat the breasts before they went into a very hot oven.

However, when it came to deglazing the pan before serving, I added a splash of red wine vinegar along with chicken stock.

Tony’s roast chicken breasts with a chimichurri dry rub

(Per 4 chicken breasts)

Ingredients

For the chimichurri dry rub:

3 Tbsp dried parsley

2 Tbsp dried oregano

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp pimenton

½ tsp ground black pepper

For roasting the chicken breasts:

4 chicken breasts, bone-in, skin-on

1 quantity of chimichurri dry rub (recipe above and below)

3 Tbsp olive oil

Coarse sea salt

100ml chicken stock, for deglazing the oven pan

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar for deglazing the pan

Salt for finishing the sauce

Fresh oregano or parsley for garnish

Method

Preheat a large air fryer oven to 200°C or a big conventional oven to 220°C.

Rinse the breasts and pat them dry thoroughly.

Make the rub: mix all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Tip it onto a board or plate and spread it out.

Roll the breasts in the rub thoroughly, but don’t shake it off.

Drizzle olive oil over the breasts. Season them generously with coarse salt.

Roast in a pre-heated 200°C countertop air fryer oven for 30 minutes, or in a large conventional oven for 35 to 40 minutes at 220°C.

I switched the oven to grill for the last few minutes to ensure a crisp, golden skin, but watch it so it doesn’t blacken.

Allow the chicken breasts to rest in the oven with the door ajar and the oven switched off for 5 minutes.

Spoon or pour off any excess fat but be careful not to lose the flavourful pan juices.

Deglaze the oven pan with the chicken stock and red wine vinegar on a moderately high heat on the hob. Taste and add salt if needed.

Serve the breasts with the pan juices poured over or alongside, and with side dishes of your choice, garnished with fresh oregano or parsley. DM

To buy a copy of Tony Jackman’s Retro Karoo Food (Penguin Random House) signed by the author in gold, send an email to him at tony@dailymaverick.co.za. Or buy it through the Daily Maverick Shop.

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award.