Delicious indulgent, spicy Sunday evening dinner. Feeds 2 generously

• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 heaped tbsp gochujang
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 400g chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• ½ tsp white pepper
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tbsp veg oil

1. Mix the sesame oil, honey, soy sauce, gochujang and rice vinegar in a small bowl with 2 tbsp water
2. Mix the cornflour, sesame seeds, pepper and salt in a bowl and toss the chicken pieces in it
3. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan, shake off the chicken pieces and fry until crispy, toasty brown and cooked through
4. Add the sauce to the pan, mix through and heat until bubbly, sticky and coating the chicken
5. Serve over rice, sprinkled with chopped spring onions and toasted sesame seeds

Comforting chicken casserole with Tex-Mex flavours, pale creams and beiges, offset with flashes of green on top. Classic spoon eating.

• 1 tbsp veg oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ tsp salt
• Black pepper
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 2 large green chillis, finely chopped
• 1 yellow pepper, chopped
• 600ml chicken stock
• 1 tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 100ml milk
• Meat from 4 chicken thighs, poached for 8 mins in the stock and then chopped/shredded
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp cold water
• Fresh coriander, avocado, grated cheddar, tortilla chips, pickled jalapenos

1. Heat the the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and cook over a medium heat for 5 mins until soft
2. Add garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, chilli and yellow pepper
3. Stir and cook for 5 mins, then add the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 mins
4. Add the milk, cannellini beans and chicken. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 mins
5. Finally stir in the lime juice and the cornflour slurry and stir until thickened
6. Serve with rice, sprinkled with fresh coriander, diced avocado, grated cheese, crumbled tortilla chips and pickled jalapenos

With apologies to both India and Italy, this is their unapologetically delicious lovechild.

If you have leftover chicken tikka in the fridge and you don’t feel like making a salad, I’ve got you covered… it’s the very definition of a low effort/high flavour weeknight dinner. Makes 4 individual pizzas

The pizza sauce … Although of course you don’t have to make sauce from scratch, it is super-simple and tasty – and I’m more likely to have the ingredients lying around than I am to have a ready-made sauce. And this is a modified butter chicken sauce, so it tastes brilliant. And can be made in advance to save time on for dinner.

• 3 tbsp veg oil
• 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• Thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• ½ onion, roughly chopped
• 300 g tomato passata
• ½ tsp ground fenugreek
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp paprika
• ½ tsp kashmiri chilli powder
• ½ tsp honey
• Salt and pepper

1. In a little whizzer, blend the onion, garlic and ginger
2. Heat the veg oil in a saucepan and add the onion mix
3. Cook for 5 mins or so until soft
4. Add all the rest of the sauce ingredients and stir together
5. Bring to a bubble and then cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for about an hour
6. It should be thick, dark red and reduced – more a paste than a sauce

And then it’s just a construction job!

• 2-4 ready-made pizza bases (depending on size)
• Pieces of chicken tikka, cut into bite-size morsels
• ½ red onion, sliced into thin half moons
• 1 large green chilli, deseeded and sliced into thin rings
• ½ red pepper, cut into thin slices
• 400g grated mozzarella
• Fresh coriander, chopped

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C fan (220C)
2. Smear the sauce liberally over the pizza bases
3. Divide the toppings evenly between them
4. Sprinkle over the mozzarella
5. Bake for 12-13 mins until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the crust is brown
6. Pull out of the oven, sprinkle with fresh coriander and cut into slices
7. Serve straight away, with a small bowl of plain yoghurt topped with a swirl of mango chutney for dipping the crusts in

Although this is of course delicious for everyone, it’s a dish that gets a lot of requests from kid visitors. It’s super-simple, savoury and scrumptious over rice, atop pasta or wrapped in wraps. All bases covered! And no-one will complain because it’s ‘too spicy’…

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 2 tsp butter
• 1 tsp garlic oil
• 1 small onion, diced as fine as possible (very very tiny pieces so fusspots can’t see them)
• ½ chicken stock cube
• 1 tsp paprika
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tsp tomato puree
• 300ml boiling water

1. Heat the butter and garlic oil in a lidded frying pan over a medium-high heat
2. Brown the chicken thigh fillets and then remove them from the pan
3. Turn the heat down and add the diced onion
4. Cook the onion over a low heat until soft, then crumble in the chicken stock cube, adding paprika, salt and tomato puree
5. Stir in and cook for a minute then pop the chicken back in and add enough boiling water so the meat is half submerged
6. Bring the liquid to the boil, then simmer on low with the lid on for 30 mins
7. Then stir, remove the lid and simmer for another 20-30 mins
8. By this time, the sauce should be almost gone and the chicken should be soft enough that you can pull it apart with forks
9. And then you pull it apart with forks. And that’s it