Barbecued Chicken with Grilled Apricot & Thyme Relish
Written by: Rachel Phipps
Barbecuing fresh apricots transforms them and really brings out strong notes of honey. Then, tossed with a little white balsamic vinegar, fresh thyme, and your best extra virgin olive oil they make the perfect low effort, high reward relish for barbecued chicken thighs or pork chops. Choose apricots that are only just ripe and are still quite firm. You need to be able to cut them in half and remove the stone, if they’re eating ripe, they’ll fall apart on the grill.
Instructions
Prepare the barbecue to cook with a large area of direct heat, and a smaller of indirect heat. With the lid closed, you want the cooking temperature to be approximately 300°C.
Rub the chicken thighs with olive oil, salt and pepper before placing them to cook on the area of direct heat. Halve and stone the apricots, before brushing the grill of the indirect area of heat with a little oil and placing them cut side down. Close the lid and cook for 8-10 minutes, until the apricots have slightly softened.
Turn the apricots to cook for another couple of minutes with the lid shut, before transferring them to a chopping board. Turn the chicken over.
While the chicken is cooking for another 15 minutes or so, roughly slice the cooked apricots into large wedges before stirring in the thyme, white balsamic vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil to make the relish. Season to taste with sea salt.
Check the chicken for doneness: it should reach an internal temperature of 74°C at the thickest part when tested with a probe thermometer.
Transfer the chicken to a warm serving platter before spooning over the relish and finishing with a sprinkling of salt.
Ingredients
Available in store
- 6 skinless boneless chicken thighs
- light olive oil, for cooking the chicken
- sea salt
- freshly cracked black pepper
- 6 just-ripe apricots
- 1/2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- 1/2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil