Recipe • 1 September 2022

Cajun Chicken Traybake

Sweet onions & peppers, fluffy rice, yoghurt & rocket

Serves 4

Prep 7 minutes

Cook 1 hour

2 red onions
3 mixed-colour peppers
4 free-range chicken legs, skin on, bone-in
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
4 cloves of garlic
olive oil
red wine vinegar
1 mug of basmati rice (300g)
4 tablespoons natural yoghurt
60g rocket
optional: extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Peel and halve the onions. Tear up the peppers into big chunks, discarding the seeds and stalks. Place it all in a 25cm x 35cm roasting tray with the chicken, Cajun seasoning and whole unpeeled garlic cloves. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon each of olive oil and red wine vinegar, season with black pepper and toss well, turning the chicken skin side up. Roast for 40 minutes.

Boil the kettle. Remove the tray from the oven and mash the soft garlic cloves into the tray juices, discarding the skins. Around the chicken, pour in 1 mug of rice and 2 mugs of boiling kettle water (600ml). Carefully cover with tin foil and return to the oven for 20 minutes, or until the rice is fluffy and the chicken pulls easily away from the bone. Season to perfection, then serve with dollops of yoghurt, rocket, a pinch of black pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, if you like.

Go veggie

Replace the chicken with scrubbed butternut squash or aubergine, cut into nice big chunks and cooked in exactly the same way.