Rick Stein served up a tasty sumac chicken dish with pomegranate molasses, chilli and sesame seeds in Turkey on Rick Stein: From Venice to Istanbul.

Rick says: “This is an ideal chicken dish for an outdoor summer party. I favour cooking it in the oven because the marinade is apt to burn on a barbecue. Sumac is Turkey’s favourite spice. It’s a red berry with an astringent, lemony flavour, the fruit of a small bush. This dish is ideal as part of a warm and cold buffet where people have a bit of everything including a rice pilaf.”

The ingredients are: 1 whole chicken, about 2kg, jointed into 8 pieces, 3 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp sesame seeds.

For the marinade: 2 tbsp ground sumac, 2 large garlic cloves, crushed or grated, ½ -1 tsp chilli flakes, 1 tbsp tomato purée, 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses and 1 tsp salt.

To make this simple dish: Mix all the marinade ingredients together, rub well into the chicken and leave for 1 hour.

Heat in the oven to 200 degrees celsius / gas 6.

Put the chicken in a roasting tin, drizzle with the olive oil and scatter the sesame seeds over. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes.

See recipes by Rick in his book titled: Rick Stein: From Venice to Istanbul available from Amazon now.