Tray Baked Chicken

 

When you hear "tray bake" do you think "Jamie Oliver"? Me too. There's a reason for that. He's the King of whacking everything in a roasting tray and making a delicious meal out of it. Bless him. One of his creations saved me today (with a few tweaks of my own).

I had one of those days where you think you have plenty of time to make yourself a cafe latte, leisurely browse through your cook books and make an un-hurried meal with the fresh organic chicken you bought. WRONG! By crunch time, I was scrambling. After visits from family members, Doctor's appointments for kids and phone calls from friends, I didn't have enough time to make the meal I had decided on earlier in the day. Thank goodness for Jamie. It's not the first time he's saved and me I expect it won't be the last.

I served the chicken with potatoes sautéed with rosemary and garlic from my garden and creamed spinach - more of Jamie's suggestions and they were perfect sides - of course!

Tray Baked Chicken
from Jamie Oliver's 30 Minutes Meals
Serves 4-6

1 1.6kg whole organic chicken cut into eight pieces
2 rashers of pancetta
1 tablespoon of dried oregano
2 of teaspoons of sweet paprika
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lemon
300g cherry tomatoes
2-3 sprigs of rosemary

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C.

Get yourself a big piece of baking paper and sprinkle it with the dried oregano, salt, pepper and paprika and add the olive oil. Put the chicken pieces on top of and mix the seasoning over the chicken, rubbing it in really well. Then put big frying pan on a medium-high heat and brown the chicken on all sides.


When the chicken is brown, place them onto a roasting tray with the lemon (quartered) and the cherry tomatoes. Make sure to pour in all the juices into the pan!!


Then, lay the pancetta in the tray along with the chicken. Put the sprigs of rosemary in the frying pan with any of the leftover juices and coat them then add them to as well.


Put the roasting tray in the oven and roast for about 15-20 minutes.