Those of you who see most of my posts know that (a) I am mostly a weekend cook; (b) I love recipes that are quick and also one pan and (c) chicken is on the menu OFTEN!

Yesterday was one of those end of winter days; grey, constant drizzling rain, chilly and just generally no fun.  We felt like something simple but warming, and I definitely felt like something simple after spending most of the afternoon snoozing on the couch.

This recipe certainly fits the bill.   I found it on The Woks of Life.  Wow do I love that site.  I have bookmarked so many recipes to try.    Having gone to the supermarket prior to deciding what to cook I also had some vegetables other than just potato, so we also have parsnip and carrot in this dish.     Mostly I purchase skinless & boneless chicken thighs,  however for this recipe skin on, bone-in is much much better.  (Though I resisted the urge and left the skin on the side of the plate!).

Be assured ‘simple’ also means ‘tasty’.   It only takes a few minutes to put together but ends up being a pan of deliciousness and easily translated up or down in terms of catering numbers.  In fact you don’t really need to measure or weigh anything.

Recipe below is enough to feed 2.  I allowed 2 chicken thighs per person (with one leftover so I can have a chicken sandwich the next day).  The recipe this is inspired by allows 1 chicken thigh per person – which might be fine if you have other courses or just want a small amount.  (I’m afraid mostly neither of those things happen in our household).    If cooking for a large number of people you may need to use 2 pans.

Lemon Chicken Thighs & Veg

ROASTED LEMON CHICKEN THIGHS & VEG

Serving Number:  2

• 5 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ cup olive oil
• approximately 4 washed potatoes (I left the skin on), cut into 1″ chunks,  one parsnip and one carrot, peeled and cut into smallish chunks.
• 1 lemon, sliced
• 10 cloves garlic, peeled (or however many you want – though probably not a lot more)
• ¼ cup chopped coriander

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C and season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a roasting pan set over two burners at medium high heat.
2. Sear the chicken skin-side down in the roasting pan. After the chicken thighs have been searing for about 5-7 minutes, flip them over. Add the vegetables and stir them in the oil. Add the lemon slices and garlic cloves, tossing everything together so the vegetables and garlic are well-coated in olive oil.
3. Transfer the chicken to the oven and cook for another 30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender.   At around 2/3 of the way through you may want to check the dish and pour off some of the juices if it looks like the vegetables are ‘swimming’.   (Don’t know what your experience is, but our chicken seems to have a lot of excess water which comes out in cooking.  Note to self: buy free-range organic chicken.)
4. Remove from the oven and stir in the herbs. Serve.

We served this with a very simple leafy green salad with some chopped tomato and red capsicum –  sprinkled with raspberry vinegar and balsamic syrup.

Plus – I can’t help it, I love a bit of aioli with potato.   But we didn’t have any and it was 5 minutes until dinner was ready.  So I made the following:

1/4 cup mayonnaise (Mr MWCED and I prefer Best Foods)
1/4 cup Sour Cream
a dollop of pesto
a dollop of dijonaisse
salt & pepper to taste

Mix it all together.  (You could also ‘steal’ a clove or 2 of garlic from your roasting dish – they will be nicely mushy by now – and add – I definitely suggest you consider it).   Don’t be tempted to scoff it all  before you take the dinner out of the oven.