Chicken Tray Bake

Before You Start

Cut the vegetables small so they cook with the chicken.

Put the chicken skin-side up and leave the tray uncovered.

If your oven runs hot, check at 35 minutes.

Spoon the tray juices over the plates.

Making Chicken Tray Bake

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1. Heat the oven to 220°C / 430°F (200°C / 390°F fan).

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2. Toss the potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic and thyme with 2 tbsp of the oil and half the salt on a large tray.

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3. Rub the chicken with the rest of the oil, salt and the pepper and lay skin-side up on top of the vegetables.

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4. Roast for 45 minutes, stirring the vegetables once, until the skin is golden and the juices run clear.

   Mark done Start 45 min timer

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What's Going On Here

Cut the vegetables smaller than you think you need to. That is the single most useful piece of advice for a tray bake, because the chicken and the vegetables must finish together, and vegetables cut thick take far longer than thighs.

Potatoes and carrots go in about 2 cm cubes. The chicken thighs sit on top, skin-side up, so their fat drips down and flavours the vegetables beneath. Do not cover the tray with foil. The skin needs dry heat to crisp.

Toss the vegetables in oil, garlic and thyme, and season everything well. Salt the chicken skin too, as it helps it brown.

Turn the vegetables once halfway through. The tray is ready when the chicken skin is deep golden, the potatoes have crisp edges and the juices from a thigh run clear. Thighs are cheaper and harder to overcook than breast. Leftovers can be shredded into a wrap or stirred into rice the next day.

Storage and Reheating

Keeps in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat in a hot oven until piping hot.

Ingredient Swaps

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
• Fresh herbs work in place of the dried thyme at roughly three times the quantity — a teaspoon of dried is about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped.

Good With

• Green beans
• Peas
• Gravy
• Green salad

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Braised Red Cabbage, Bread Rolls, Buttered Peas.

Nutrition per Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

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