THE ART OF FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER

This chicken dish is all about the sauce – a tangy, buttery juice that is packed full of flavour

There was a terrifying piece in The New York

Times last month about the snowplough parents who go to extreme lengths to remove obstacles from their kids’ lives. These Gen Z-ers are growing up so shielded from everyday things that when they go out into the big wide world they can’t cope and often leave university after a term.

“One came home because there was a rat in the dorm room. Some didn’t like their room-mates. Others said it was too much work, and they had never learned independent study skills”, it reported. The most extraordinary reason one girl had for dropping out? She didn’t like food with sauce. “Her whole life, her parents had helped her avoid sauce, calling friends before going for dinner. At college, she didn’t know how to cope with the cafeteria options – covered in sauce.”

That anyone could be so terrified of sauce seems like a madness. But then, I have always been of the “would you like some dinner with your sauce?” school of thought. As a child I would stand over a pot of bubbling pasta sauce and steal spoonful after spoonful when my mum’s back was turned; on Sundays, I’d beg for a separate mug of gravy when everyone else was happy to just have a drizzle over their roast. And don’t even get me started on condiments…

I think it’s because with most dishes, the sauce is where you find the flavour. The star of this recipe is the tangy, buttery juices which will have you mopping up every last bit straight from the pan.