Tamar Ansh has released a wonderful new Passover cookbook this year — and it’s truly different than anything I’ve seen before.
Promoted as a kids’ cookbook and activity book, Let My Children Cook features delicious, family-friendly recipes that are simple and quick to make. They really are do-able with your children — or, better yet, by your children!
The recipes feature fun cartoon illustrations, an easy-to-read font and simpler words for chefs of all ages (children ages 8-15 are the target audience).
Let My Children Cook also includes cooking and safety guidelines, and explains general dietary laws and those specific to Passover – all especially catered to new cooks.
My family received a review copy of Let My Children Cook a few weeks ago and we have already tried out several recipes. One in particular has stood out as our favorite: The Spicy Chicken Bake. It’s perfect for Passover, of course, but it’s also gluten-free and grain-free (and even white potato-free), so we ate it often during our Whole30!
I even made this recipe for 60 people at a family Shabbat dinner at my shul last month. It was universally liked by both adults and children (I was even asked for the recipe by one self-avowed chicken “hater”!).
Oh, and before I share the recipe, let me just say: Don’t let the word “spicy” in the title turn you off. It’s spicy as in “made with many spices”, not as in burn-your-mouth-it’s-so-spicy-hot. I don’t like spicy harif, but I do, very much, like the flavor of this dish.
Spicy Chicken Bake Passover Recipe
Recipe Serves 4-6 people
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken, cut into 1/8ths (we do 1/6ths – and it’s been fine)
- 2 onions sliced
- 1 large sweet potato, diced (we don’t peel it, but you certainly could)
- 2 cups baby frozen carrots (we use fresh)
- 1 Tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 Tablespoon onion powder
- 1 Tablespoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
- cooking oil spray (we use Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead)
Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place the chicken pieces in a baking pan. Put the sweet potato chunks and carrots in between or underneath the chicken pieces.
3. Mix the spices together in a small bowl. Sprinkle some of the spice mixture underneath the skin of the chicken pieces. Sprinkle the rest of the spice mixture on top of the chicken pieces.
4. Lightly spray the spiced chicken with cooking oil spray (I just drizzled with olive oil). Place the onion slices on top of the chicken.
5. Cover the pan with parchment paper and then with aluminum foil. (This great trick will keep your chicken wonderfully moist.)
6. Place the pan in a hot oven and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Just made this – replacing onion with celery, adding a small white potato in addition to the sweet potato, and adding fennel because I had some. I actually made 2 pans – one for us, one for good friends who just had a baby (I’d promised to make them a Pesadik meal). They’re cooling now, will get frozen shortly to be thawed sometime in a couple of weeks! Thanks for the recipe.
So glad you made it — hope you enjoy as much as we do!
My family does not like cooked carrots. Can they be left out or does the recipe need the flavor?
I added a tsp of salt it was too Blnd for our taste otherwise but was perfect this way! Thank you for dinner!!