This is “naughty” and delicious for a weeknight dinner. The chicken roasts in an orange-lemon juice bath, flavored with honey, mustard and whiskey. It’s tangy and sweet and finger licking delicious. Serve it with rice to soak up all the sauce and a leafy green salad.

Ingredients

• 8 chicken thighs (about 1300 grams), with bone and skin
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed with the side of your knife but left whole
• 1 large onion, thickly sliced
• 1 large orange, zest and juice (you will need ½ cup orange juice so use more oranges if one is not juicy enough)
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 3 Tbs honey
• 2 Tbs wholegrain mustard
• ¼ cup good whiskey

Method

Preheat oven to 200 C. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper on both sides. Place them in a baking tray, skin side up. Scatter here and there the garlic and the onion slices.

In a small bowl, whisk together the zest, orange and lemon juice, olive oil, honey, mustard and whiskey. Pour in the baking tray, making sure the bottom side of the chicken is also coated in the sauce (just lift thighs up slightly with your hands to let the sauce spread all over the base of the tray).

Bake for 30 minutes. Baste with the sauce and bake for another 15-20 minutes until thighs are cooked through and nicely roasted.

Transfer thighs on a serving platter. Pour all the sauces from the baking pan in a blender, together with the cooked onion and garlic. Blend on high speed until smooth. This is really important, as by blending the pan juices with the cooked onion and garlic, the sauce will thicken and will become really creamy and delicious.

Serve chicken with the sauce.