It can be difficult to decide what to have for dinner during the week as most people want something delicious and healthy without having to spend hours in the kitchen cooking. Luckily, Mary Berry has come up with a simple yet mouthwatering Mediterranean chicken bake recipe where all you have to do is throw everything in a pan and let the oven do all the hard work.
In her cookbook Mary Berry Cooks, she said: “This is a great way to feed the family as the chicken and vegetables are all cooked in one very large tray in the oven. It takes only minutes to put everything together, then it sits in the oven for under an hour with no fussy finishing off to do and only one pan to wash up.”
This Mediterranean chicken bake is a great dish now that the weather is getting warmer. It is packed with juicy chicken, smoky bacon, seasoned vegetables, and lemon preserves to give it a fresh citrus flavour.
Lemon preserves are from Morocco and can usually be found in the speciality section of most supermarkets, but you can use lemon slices instead if you cannot find them.
This is the perfect dish to feed a family or large gathering. This recipe will serve six people, and each serving provides one chicken thigh and one drumstick per person.
Mary Berry’s Mediterranean chicken bake recipe
Ingredients
- 1kg of potatoes
- Six chicken thighs
- Six chicken drumsticks
- One large onion
- Two garlic cloves
- Three courgettes
- Six rashers of smoked streaky bacon
- Five preserved lemons
- 200g (one can) of anchovy-stuffed olives
- One and a half tablespoons of paprika
- Three tablespoons of olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
Begin by preparing the ingredients. Peel and cut the potatoes into large chunks, cut the onion into wedges, cut the courgettes into thick slices, snip the bacon into small pieces and crush the garlic cloves.
Preheat the oven to 220C (200C Fan or Gas Mark 7). Place the potato slices in a large roasting tin and drizzle two tablespoons of olive oil over them.
Add the onion, garlic, bacon, and chicken to the roasting pan and toss together so everything is coated in olive oil. Slice the lemon preserves into quarters and place them in the roasting tin. Season the dish with paprika, salt, and pepper.
Ensure the roasting tin is not overcrowded and that all ingredients are in a single layer. Then, place the dish in the oven to cook for 40 minutes.
While the dish is cooking, add the courgette slices and one tablespoon of olive oil to a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
Once the timer is up, take the dish out of the oven and add the seasoned courgette slices and olives. Then, put back in the oven for 20 minutes until everything looks golden brown and tender.
Your delicious Mediterranean chicken bake will then be ready to serve.