Choosing what to cook for dinner can be a real challenge, especially when so many recipes labelled “quick and easy” turn out to feature a lengthy list of ingredients and numerous steps. This is precisely why most new recipes I come across online and decide to test tend to be simple traybakes or one-pot meals. They provide a brilliant solution for feeding the whole family, with chicken and vegetables all cooked together in a single large tray in the oven.
Mary Berry’s Mediterranean all-in-one chicken is a wonderfully straightforward recipe that brings together succulent chicken with vibrant vegetables, all seasoned and coated to deliver a wonderful depth of flavour.
The recipe recommends one chicken thigh and one drumstick per person, although fewer portions can be used if your household tends towards lighter appetites. While I followed the recipe fairly closely, I did make two small adjustments.
The first was leaving out the green olives, as they’re not entirely to my liking, and the second was increasing the roasting time by an extra 10 minutes after adding the courgettes. This traybake proved delightful; though, if making it again, I would probably swap the preserved lemons for a regular lemon, as the salty brine covering the dish wasn’t completely to my taste.
For Rick Stein’s chicken traybake recipe, he recommends using only chicken thighs placed on top of a base of fennel, courgette slices and baby potatoes.
Similar to Mary Berry’s recipe, the dish uses lemons for seasoning; Rick’s version, though, requires fresh lemons, which provides a significantly better flavour to both the chicken and vegetables.
As the chicken needed pan-searing before oven-baking, the skin crisped up beautifully and kept the meat delightfully tender.
While Rick Stein’s chicken traybake recipe involves somewhat more preparation, the taste result is considerably better. I’ve made this dish three times in the last month alone.
I also valued the few ingredients needed for this traybake and the cheaper cost when compared to Mary Berry’s rather more expensive recipe.
