I don’t know about you but before my culinary adventure, my Saturdays consisted of getting out of bed to go to the loo, brushing my teeth and chilling in my pjs till I started to feel frumpy.

Then I learnt to cook.

Now my Saturdays start at 06:30, just like a normal working day. I get up to make breakfast for everyone and although every Friday night like clock work my dad will tell me don’t rush tomorrow morning, sleep in a little late. Come Saturday morning, while his on the thrown he will scream… yes scream from the throne to my room and ask what time am I getting up. Hinting as hard as rocks that his hungry.

That is when my day begins and it doesn’t slow down at all, it actually speeds up.  Lunch is normally served at 12:00 over the weekends, so that means I start cooking as soon as the breakfast dishes are done, but before lunch I take my mum to my grans grave for her weekly visit, which means that if lunch is not ready by the time we leave for the grave, we will not be eating lunch on time, meaning my dad will nibble and rush me by hovering and my mother will keep mentioning that she is old and has to eat at set times… and then they still tell me to sleep late as if. I prefer weekdays where the only stress is getting supper on the table, okay maybe not lately seeing as for the past week Eskom has made sure that our area is in dark from 18:00 till 22:00 just about the time supper gets started.

That is why when Saturday comes rolling its rushed head all in my face, I stick to simple one pan meals or use stuff that I already have in the freezer and sometimes, like once every year I will just get fast food. Actually fast food makes more work for me, because then I still have to make supper.

I came across this recipe in Ashleigh Levin’s cook book.

It was super easy to make and believe it or not I actually had all the ingredients in the pantry although there was just enough, after making this dish the bin was full of empty containers.

Ingredients:

• 12 x pieces of chicken.
• Salt and pepper.
• ½ x cup mayonnaise.
• ½ x cup Mrs Balls chutney
• ½ x cup smooth apricot jam.
• ½ x sachet brown onion soup.
• 1 x tbsp. olive oil.
• 2 x cloves garlic, crushed.

Method:

• Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper and set aside.
• In a bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients:
• Place the chicken skin side up on a greased baking tray.
• Baste the chicken with the sauce.
• Pop into a preheated oven and bake at 180 degrees for 45 minutes or until the chicken is nice and crispy.
• You can baste the chicken every 10 or 15 minutes.