Maple Chicken Thighs

Our answer

Nigella's Maple Chicken 'N' Ribs (from NIGELLA EXPRESS) is a great dish for a crowd of people. If you are replacing the ribs with extra chicken thighs (skin on and bone in) then we don't think you will need extra oil as the thighs themselves will have enough fat to prevent the dish from drying out. Also if the thighs are large then you may find that you only need 6 extra, rather than 12, as thighs tend to be a bit more "meaty" than spare ribs. It will depend on the number of people you are feeding and their likely appetites.

For a smaller amount of thighs, or thighs and ribs, you would need to reduce the amount of marinade. We woud probably halve the amount of marinade for 6 thighs, as after that some of the quantities become small and a bit more tricky to deal with (such as the star anise and cinnamon). The cooking time will not be drastically reduced as the thighs still have to cook through and the time will partly depend on the size of the thighs. We would suggest checking them after 1 hour of cooking (for medium to large thighs) and then allowing longer if necessary. The meat should be tender enough to be almost falling off the bone and the skin crisp and sticky.