Mediterranean Chicken – Piglet Style!

I discovered this one-pot recipe when we went to a friend’s house for dinner one evening. I loved it – not only is it delicious, but also simple to prepare and cook. Over time I discovered other favorites and it slipped from the weekly menu plan. However, a couple of week’s ago reading “Out with the Old and In with the New – Broad Beans, Garlic and Chicken” over at Chica Andaluza’s blog set my taste buds racing and reminded me of this delicious and simple recipe!

Ingredients
Chicken pieces complete with skin
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Red Pepper/green peppers
Onions (cut in half)
Carrots
Lemon
Garlic cloves
Aubergine (optional)
Black olives (don’t forget to remove the stones)
Fresh Rosemary
Olive oil
(Quantities are flexible depending on the number of people you are cooking for!)

Method
Preheat oven to 175C
Add a small glug of Olive oil to a large open dish or tray and put in the oven for about 5mins to heat.
Remove from oven and add chicken pieces, potatoes (cut into large chunks), onions (cut in half) and garlic cloves. Squeeze the juice of the lemon over the chicken and add the remaining lemon halves to the dish. Sprinkle with fresh rosemary and
olive oil.

Cover and seal the dish with tin foil and return to the oven to cook for about 1-1½ hrs. I usually check progress after an hour and turn vegetables and chicken.

Cut the peppers into quarters (remove seeds) and the carrots into chunks. If you are including aubergines prepare just before cooking. Last time I prepared these in advance they discoloured. Don’t forget to remove stones if you are adding olives!
Set these ingredients to one side.

After 45mins add the sweet potatoes and carrots to the dish (I’ve discovered when roasting they do not take as long to cook!)

Once the potatoes start to soften, remove the tin foil turn the chicken and add the remaining vegetables. Return to oven so potatoes and chicken “brown” and finish cooking.

You can cook this recipe as slowly or quickly as you like simply by adjusting the oven temperature or when you remove the tin foil.

Transfer to heated serving dish so people can serve themselves at the table.

Enjoy!