Crispy Chicken Thighs with White Beans & Kale

Ingredients

• 8 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
• 2 x 400g tins cannellini beans, drained
• 150 ml chicken stock
• 200 g curly kale, tough stalks removed
• salt and black pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 30 g parmesan, finely grated
• Crusty ciabatta, to serve
• Fresh basil, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C. Pat the chicken thighs properly dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam means no crackling. Rub all over with 2 tbsp olive oil, the chilli flakes and rosemary, then season generously with salt and pepper. Don't be shy here; the skin needs it.
2. Sit the thighs skin-side up in a large roasting tin with space between each one — crowd them and they steam instead of roast, and you'll lose the crisp skin you're working for. Roast for 30 minutes until the skin is deep mahogany and audibly crisp when you tap it.
3. Pull the tin out. Tip the drained cannellini beans and sliced garlic around (not over) the thighs so the skin stays proud of the liquid. Pour the stock around the edges — the beans need that liquid to drink up the rosemary-scented fat without going dry, and it stops the garlic catching and turning bitter on the hot tin.
4. Back into the oven for 10 minutes. The garlic will mellow into the beans and soften to pale gold rather than browning hard — watch it on the second bake; burnt garlic turns the whole tray bitter.
5. Scatter the kale over the beans, drizzle with the remaining tbsp of olive oil and toss it lightly through, tucking some leaves up against the chicken skin so the tips frizzle and crisp. Roast for a final 5 minutes until the kale is wilted with lacy, dark-edged tips.
6. Taste the beans. Adjust for salt now — the stock and parmesan both bring some, but the beans themselves are bland until you push them. A final crack of pepper through the lot.
7. Squeeze the lemon juice over everything straight in the tin — the acid cuts the rendered chicken fat and lifts the beans from heavy to bright. Scatter over the lemon zest and shower with grated parmesan so it melts into the pan juices. Serve straight from the tin, spooning beans and kale alongside each thigh.