The weeknight workhorse.
Why you should cook this
The weeknight workhorse. Eight bone-in chicken thighs, a kilo of baby potatoes halved, two bunches of broccolini, two lemons cut in half, five smashed garlic cloves, fresh thyme, smoked paprika, plenty of olive oil. Twenty minutes prep, thirty-five in the oven, dinner for four. The recipe you cook so often that the marker on your oven dial has worn slightly thinner where 220 lives.
The lemons get roasted cut-side down, which mellows them. Squeeze them over at the table and the citrus is gentler than fresh, more honeyed, which works against the smoked paprika on the chicken skin. Potatoes get a fifteen-minute head start because they need it. Broccolini joins in the last five because it doesn’t. Bone-in skin-on chicken thighs, never breast, never boneless. The skin is the point. Crispy, deeply golden, salt-crusted. Eat with the fingers. Save the bones for stock.
What to drink with it
A glass of crisp Australian chardonnay, a Tom Collins (our recipe), or a chilled riesling.
Notes from the kitchen
Halve the lemons before roasting. Roasted lemon halves are squeezed over at the table, mellower than fresh lemon.
The recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 220°C fan. Toss potatoes with 2 tbsp oil, salt, pepper. Spread on a large sheet pan. Roast 15 minutes.
- Toss chicken with 2 tbsp oil, garlic, thyme, paprika, salt and pepper.
- After 15 min, push potatoes to one side. Add chicken thighs skin-up to the pan. Add lemon halves cut-side down. Roast 20 min.
- Toss broccolini with remaining oil, salt, pepper. Add to pan. Roast 5 more minutes.
- Serve with the roasted lemons squeezed over.
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Two things that go wrong
Soggy potatoes
Pan was crowded or vegetables weren’t pre-roasted. The 15-minute head start on potatoes is the trick.
Pale chicken
Oven wasn’t hot enough. 220 degrees fan, no apologies.
Variations worth knowing
Mediterranean
Add 200g of cherry tomatoes and 100g of pitted kalamata olives in the last 10 minutes.
North African
Add 1 tablespoon of harissa to the chicken rub. 1 tablespoon of preserved lemon to the vegetables.
Greek
Replace rosemary with oregano. Add 100g of crumbled feta in the last 5 minutes.
Leftovers and make ahead
Two days fridge. Reheat at 200 degrees uncovered for 10 minutes. Use leftover chicken in a salad or sandwich the next day.