June 16, 2005

Chicken & Veggie One Pan Supper

Here’s another “non-recipe” method-driven supper that I make fairly often in the winter, and from time to time – such as on rainy days – during the rest of the year. It involves a few minutes of chopping and arranging, and then a good solid 45 minutes of ignoring. Then, it’s time to eat! Pour yourself a glass of wine while you lounge around and supper cooks itself. If you're feeling ambitious, you could make a salad during this time.

Chicken & Veggie One Pan Supper

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Two serving-sized pieces of bone-in, skin-on chicken. Breasts are fine, but I like to use the moister leg-with-thigh-attached. You could also use a package of four or six thighs.
Two cups of hardy vegetables, cut into chunks. Or more, if you can fit them in.

Get a large, oven-proof pan or casserole dish. Spritz lightly with canola oil. Place your chicken pieces, spaced evenly, in the dish. Tumble the chopped veggies in around the pieces of chicken, making sure they are in a single layer. Spritz the whole dish, including the tops of the chicken pieces, very lightly with canola oil. Sprinkle with salt, and add whatever other herbs you might like. I currently fancy ground cumin, smoked paprika, and a little oregano. The herbs will stick to the lightly oiled surface of the chicken and veggies.

Put the pan in the oven, uncovered, and allow to cook for 45 minutes. Dish up and enjoy!

The vegetables will shrink a little as they cook, so you want to make sure you start with lots.

What kind of vegetables work for this?
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Carrots
Cherry tomatoes (pierce them, but leave them whole)
Mushrooms (cut in half)
Fennel bulb, sliced or chunked
Garlic cloves, whole and peeled
Brussels Sprouts (really! Cut them in half, though)
Parsnips
Pearl onions

I confess that I love the whole roasted garlic cloves so much that I usually go crazy and put a lot of them in. No complaints, so far.

How big should the chunks be? About the size of a cherry tomato, give or take. Garlic is necessarily smaller, but don’t sweat it. Do try for a certain amount of uniformity of size with the root vegetables, though, so everything cooks at the same rate.

2 comments:

Ana said...

I'll try this one. I also have a dish of "Chicken in the oven" that I make quite often with skinless chicken legs dusted with garlic salt and paprika and cooked in a 400F oven for about 30 minutes. The only thing I do is baste the legs with the grease that gathers on the bottom. Makes them shiny and crunchy (good when using skinless).

Dawna said...

That sounds good, too. Does it not get a little greasy, though? I worry about basting chicken with its own juices and fat, because I've had mixed results with that. Perhaps, being skinless, it's not an issue. I shall give it a try!