Berbere Chicken & Sweet Potato Bowl
Chicken thighs go into the basket wearing a wet berbere rub, laid over sweet potato that has already had a head start.
Why it works
Berbere is built on fenugreek and warm spices as much as on chilli, and both want fat and dry heat rather than liquid. Slackened with oil and lemon into a paste, the blend clings to the thighs and sets into a dark crust instead of scattering loose across the drawer. Halved thighs are through in twelve minutes at 200°C and stay juicy where breast would tighten. The sweet potato goes in three minutes early so the two finish together, and a tin of lentils dropped in at the end toasts against the hot metal rather than collapsing.
Method
- Heat the air fryer to 200°C (400°F). Toss the sweet potato with 1 tbsp of the oil and a pinch of the salt, spread it across the basket and air fry for 3 minutes.
- Meanwhile, stir the berbere, the rest of the oil, the lemon juice and the salt to a loose paste in a bowl, then turn the chicken through it until every piece is rust-red.
- Shake the basket, lay the chicken over the sweet potato in a single layer and scrape the last of the rub on top. Air fry for 7 minutes.
- Add the lentils and garlic, shake hard, and air fry 5 minutes more. It is done when the chicken reads 74°C (165°F) at the thickest point and the lentils look dry and toasted rather than glossy.
- While the basket runs, stir the yoghurt with a pinch of salt, toss the tomatoes and onion together on the board, and put the rice pouches in the microwave for their 2 minutes as the basket enters its last stretch, so the rice lands hot.
- Spread the rice across four bowls and tip the basket over it. Add the tomatoes and onion, spoon over the yoghurt and scatter with coriander, with lemon wedges to squeeze.
For the toddler
Take a few cubes of sweet potato out at step 1, before the salt, and a piece of chicken at step 2, before it meets the berbere paste, then cook both with plain oil alongside. Berbere is built on chilli and cannot be softened once it is on. Crush the lentils, shred the chicken finely, quarter the cherry tomatoes lengthways and leave the raw onion out of theirs. Spoon over plain yoghurt with no salt.
How the toddler notes workChef’s notes
Drumsticks take the same rub but need 20 minutes in the basket. Butternut squash stands in for the sweet potato on the same timer.
Mix a double batch of the rub and keep half in a jar; it holds two weeks chilled and takes prep down to three minutes.
Warm flatbread for the yoghurt, and raw carrot and cucumber batons with lemon squeezed over them.
Shred the cold chicken back through the lentils and sweet potato with more lemon. Keeps 3 days chilled.