Warrant produced by journalist returning to dish up (7)
I believe the answer is:
deserve
'warrant' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'by journalist returning to dish up' is the wordplay.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'returning' says the letters should be written backwards.
'to dish up' becomes 'serve' ('serve' can be a synonym of 'dish up').
'ed' written backwards gives 'de'.
'de' put next to 'serve' is 'DESERVE'.
'produced' is the link.
(Other definitions for deserve that I've seen before include "Warrant" , "Severed (anag)" , "Justify" , "Be entitled to" , "Be worth" .)