Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Italian Traybake : Bake-Along #93

It's Bake-Along #93, and the selected theme by Lena is Baked/Roast Chicken. I've made one of Nigella Lawson's chicken traybake recipe today for dinner (talking about last minute!). I was planning on making this traybake more than a week ago, but I was down with fever for a few days. And it took me almost a whole week to recover, what with our current heat wave which we are experiencing right now, is not helping much at all. I wish I have a swimming pool at home where I can cool off the whole day! The family has been eating takeaways for almost a week, because the cook in the house is out of action! LOL! But it rained today! Yay! What a welcome relief!

According to Nigella, this traybake, "It is "Italian" - in it's flavourings - the rosemary and lemon that waft gorgeously through the house as you cook - and in deference to the Italian sausages I use in it." 
And she is right - about the delicious aroma! I popped the tray into the oven, (my daughter helped me watch over it while I went to fetch my son from school), and just as I reached home about an hour later, I can already smell the delicious lemony-rosemary aroma right at my front door! Made our tummies growl!




I've used 6 chicken thighs and two drumsticks, 4 Italian sausages and Russet potatoes which I've peeled and cut into quarters. Fresh rosemary from my garden pot, and zest of one lemon. Put everything in a shallow baking tray, season with salt and pepper, with a drizzling of olive oil. Bake at 220C for 50-60 minutes. I baked them at 200C (I was going out), and when I came back about an hour later, I increased the temperature to 220C, move the tray up a rack in the oven, and baked them for another 15 minutes to brown the chicken and the potatoes.



These are so delicious! The chicken thigh has crispy skin with moist tender meat. And the Italian sausages, well, what can I say about the sausages! Next time, I will add a couple more Italian sausages to the tray! As for the potatoes, Nigella has this to say "What I need to tell you most urgently though is that the potatoes chunks soak up the meaty, lemony juices as they cook. So set your mind not to expect crunchy roast potatoes, but rather soft-soused chunks, scorched crisp at the corners." There was quite an amount of the tasty juices in the tray, perfect to drizzle over the chicken thighs during serving. With this traybake, I am reminded once again, how much I love all of Nigella's roast/bake chicken recipes, at least the ones that I've tried!



Italian Traybake
(from "Nigellissima", by Nigella Lawson)
Serves 4-6
3 baking potatoes (approx 750gm total), unpeeled and cut into 2cm chunks
8 chicken thighs, bone in and skin on
8 Italian sausages (approx 750gm total)
small bunch (6 or 7 sprigs) fresh rosemary
zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes or 1/2 teaspoon pouring salt
ground pepper
4x15ml tablespoons olive oil

Preheat the oven to 220C/Gas Mark 7.
Put the potatoes into a large, shallow baking tray and add the chicken thighs and sausages. If using 2 trays, divide everything between them (and also swap the trays over and turn them round halfway through cooking time).
Arrange about 4 sprigs of the rosemary among the chicken and sausages, then finely chop the needles of another 2 sprigs, to give you about 2 teaspoons of finely chopped needles, and sprinkle these onto the chicken pieces.
Zest the lemon over everything, and season with the salt and a good grinding of pepper. Drizzle with the oil and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the chicken skin and sausages are golden and the potato pieces are cooked through. It's fine to let all of this stand for up to 30 minutes once cooked, prior to serving.


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Do stop by Lena of Frozen Wings and Zoe of Bake For Happy Kids, and all our friends who has baked along with us in the linky below :


For our next Bake-Along, we will be baking Dried-Cherry Chocolate Muffins (Williams-Sonoma : Essential of Baking, pg 78, or here). Link your post to our linky which will open from 21st to 30th AprilEveryone is welcome to join us! Only current posts please.


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1. Please mention Bake-Along event in your own post linking direct to any of the hosts' post (JoyceLena or Zoe)
2. Please link only new and current post, PLEASE FOLLOW THE BAKE OR THEME provided by us. Unrelated post will be deleted.
3. Feel free to display our Bake-Along badge in your post.



And since I'm cooking with Nigella Lawson's recipe, I'm also linking this post with I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), theme for this week
March 2016 IHCC Potluck




9 comments:

  1. That's a hearty and delicious meal!

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  2. Oh my goodness Joyce, I sure wish I would have seen this post much earlier! I have chicken thighs in the oven smothered with barbecue sauce cooking away. Sure it will taste okay and Marion will want more, more, more but, I wish I had sausage and potatoes in the oven with that chicken. The flavors, the aromas the goodness in this dish sounds amazing!!!

    I'm so sorry to hear you weren't feeling well. I hope you are on the mend. I'm sure a tray of this chicken not only fattens up the belly but also mends the ills too.

    Thanks for sharing, Joyce...stay well:)

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  3. my tummy is also making noise looking at the pictures! 1 traybake kow tim dinner...nice! your family must be very hungry looking and smelling the aroma of these chicken after missing your food for so many days..!

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  4. Hi Joyce,

    I hope that you are feeling better now... Yum! I like Nigella's description saying 'potatoes chunks soak up the meaty, lemony juices as they cook"... I believe that this dish must be very delicious :D

    Zoe

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  5. Wah! Got added sausages! Joyce, this Italian Traybake is to die for! My tummy is grumbling right now hah..hah..

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  6. A well baked dish. Your daughter and you both did a fantastic job.

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  7. Glad you are feeling better Joyce. We missed you last week! I bet this did smell incredible as it cooked and tasted even better. What a great one-pan dinner. ;-)

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  8. I love this recipe. Gotta cook for my family too. And I'm glad you are feeling better. Looks like the weather is taking a toll of our body. Take care!

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  9. Oh dear, Joyce, so sorry you have had a fever, but pleased that you are on the mend. This chicken tray-bake is delicious. I have Nigelissima too and this recipes is one of my favourites.
    Just thinking about it reminds me how comforting the smell of lemon and rosemary wafting through the house is.

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