It seems I'm too dumb to use this API.
Usage is:
createrawtransaction [{"txid":txid,"vout":n},...] {address:amount,...}
Assuming "9a8b7c6d5e4f" and 1 were the "txid" and "vout" of a previous
output and "1abc" some target address, I tried (within the debug-console):
createrawtransaction [{"txid":"9a8b7c6d5e4f","vout":1}] {"1abc":42}
Error: Error parsing JSON:[{txid:9a8b7c6d5e4f,vout:1}]
and
createrawtransaction '{["txid":"9a8b7c6d5e4f","vout":1}]' '{"1abc":42}'
Error: Error parsing JSON:{["txid":"9a8b7c6d5e4f","vout":1}]
What am I missing?