Cuisine – Spring chicken bake

Everyone loves to cook a complete one-dish meal to serve up straight from the pan, making life easy.

Tossing everything into a pan or casserole to roast, braise, simmer or even cook away for hours in the slow cooker will develop lovely flavours and doesn’t create piles of dishes to clean up afterwards.

Recently, we have seen a plethora of recipes that are presented as the ‘tray bake’. This is a brilliant technique based on the good old fashioned roast, where a large cut of meat like a lamb leg or a topside of beef was surrounded by vegetables and roasted for several hours for the traditional Sunday roast dinner. It is probably only in this century that food writers, who amplify the trends to give us the recipes most frequently used, have introduced the idea of gathering seasonal vegetables, alongside simple portions of protein, to spread out in one layer on a tray to bake a complete meal in under one hour.

Personally, I still love a portion of meat or fish most nights and try to keep those portions quite small as we’re all thinking about eating more lightly for both the good of the planet and for better health outcomes. But this method of cooking is a perfect way to create a vegetarian meal.

Spring has brought an abundance of tender young vegetables that are perfect companions in a tray bake. Back on those chilly winter days that have now departed, the best bet for veggies in this method of cooking was to chop up a variety of root vegetables. Now, new season baby carrots, potatoes, spring onions, fennel bulbs, young beans, baby or cherry tomatoes and so much more are ideal for this.

One thing to consider is it’s important to get the timing right. If you toss in tender fresh green vegetables or little tomatoes at the start of the cooking time they will be completely overcooked by the time potatoes and chicken are ready, so add the delicate vegetables with only 20 or 35 minutes to go. A delicious new season’s olive oil is essential to adding great flavour, but it is fine to use a mild cooking oil if that’s what you have in your pantry. Don’t be afraid of adding salt, as that tends to enhance flavour, too.

Fresh herbs and spice mixes are a valuable way to introduce more flavour to savoury cooking. The spice section in most supermarkets has grown so much as spicy food has become a real trend that we all love in food. Take time to explore what’s offered. With such a selection of spices, it’s not easy to choose but food manufacturers put together blends of spices so cooks don’t have to have endless packets of single spices in the pantry. Easy to find are some of the Masterfoods blends – one of my personal favourites is their Moroccan Spice Blend, which I used for this chicken recipe. Also worth seeking out is the Alexandra’s range. Baharat, ras el hanout, berbere, chermoula and zahtar are all excellent mixtures of spices and herbs to keep in their handy little jars. As with all spices, do not keep the jars past their use by date as they should be fresh and spicy.

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Spring Chicken Bake

5-6 chicken legs
12 small perla potatoes
15 baby carrots, peeled
1 large bulb fennel bulb
Sprig of fresh rosemary leaves
12 cherry tomatoes
Small bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 8cm lengths.
5 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
2 tsps spice mix (see my notes about spice mixes, above)
Salt and pepper
Fresh parsley or basil leaves to decorate

Prepare an oven tray by lining it with baking paper. Set the oven to 200°C.

Place the chicken legs, potatoes and carrots in one layer in the dish, spreading out evenly. Slice the fennel bulb in two lengthwise and cut each half into about four wedges. Add these to the tray, poking them between the chicken and vegetables. Drizzle the olive oil over everything, and sprinkle the spice mix and the rosemary leaves over. Season with plenty of salt and pepper and place the tray in the centre of the oven to bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove the tray from the oven and add the tomatoes and asparagus, distributing them evenly. Use a spoon to gather up the juices from the bottom of the tray and spoon it over everything. Return the tray to the oven and continue to cook for about 20 minutes longer until it is all golden and tender.

Serve at once with a few fresh herb leaves strewn over. This recipe serves two generously, but can be scaled up by increasing everything.