I am a carb fiend. I'm the type of person who could sit and eat a great big doorstop of bread with very little (or no..) accompaniment, which is to my detriment regarding any weight loss effort!
For those of you like myself, low-carb is hard; it either seems to be deprivative and miserable or courgette-into-linguine-style hardwork. This recipe is neither, but instead wholesome and satisfying and unimaginably easy.
You will need:
Any skin-on chicken portions
A butternut squash, in inch cubes
2 red onions, quartered
1 red and yellow pepper, cut into sixths
6 garlic cloves, in their skins
1 lemon, quartered
A handful of mushrooms
Italian herbs/chicken seasoning (optional)
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Chop up the veg and tumble into a food bag (check it has no holes!) along with the lemon quarters, mushrooms and garlic cloves. Add a glug of extra virgin and a hefty sprinkle of sea salt, coarse black pepper and dried herbs. Twist the top of the bag and shake to evenly coat all the veg in the oil and seasonings.
Next, pop your chicken on a board, slash the skin and flesh and brush with a little more olive oil. Sprinkle on more sea salt and pepper followed with your favourite chicken seasoning for added flavour. I'm using Chef Paul's salt-free seasoning which includes seaweed to boost the umami savoury-ness of the chicken, mm mmmmm. If you can't get hold of this, you can always squish half a chicken stock cube across the chicken skin to intensify the flavour.
And that's it.
Tumble the bag of veg into a deep roasting tray (I've lined mine with foil to help with washing up.) and place the chicken pieces on top.
Pop into a preheated oven at 200C and leave alone for around 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked, it's skin crispy and all the veg are jewel-like and burnished. You can check the chicken is properly cooked by inserting a knife into the thickest part of the meat and seeing if the juices leaking out are clear.
Portion up the chicken and veg and squeeze over the sticky lemon. Alternatively, you can squidge the garlic and lemon in the pan with the chicken juices and add either stock or a touch of cream to create a chicken-y, garlic and lemon sauce. Delish.
Simple, healthy and tasty; dinner's on the table!
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