Stress-free Spanish chicken with chorizo

Nothing could be easier than this simple but delicious way to tray-bake a meal for a family or for guests. Once you’ve prepared the ingredients just put them in the roasting trays and apart from checking on them half way through you can go off and enjoy yourself.

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 6 chicken thighs
• 6 chicken drumsticks
• 1 fluid ounce / 30ml olive oil
• 12¼ ounces / 350g chorizo
• 2¼ lbs / 1kg new potatoes
• 2 red onions
• 1 teaspoons of dried oregano

Method

Do not de-bone or de-skin the chicken thighs and drumsticks but keep them whole.

Cut the chorizo into ¾-inch / 2cm chunks.

Wash the new potatoes and cut each in half.

Peel and roughly chop the onions.

Pre-heat the oven to 220°C / gas mark 7.

Divide the olive oil (roughly a tablespoon each) between two shallow roasting trays.

Rub the skin of the chicken in the oil of the trays and divide the thighs equally between the trays, skin side up, three thighs and three drumsticks in each tray.

Divide the chopped onion between the two trays making sure it sits on the bottom where it can caramelise.

Then divide the chorizo and the new potatoes equally between each tray, sitting on top of the onion.

Sprinkle oregano over the two trays.

Put both trays in the oven, one on a lower rack and one on a higher rack. Roast for one hour, but swap the trays over about half way through, taking the opportunity to baste the chicken, potatoes, and chorizo with the juices in the trays.

Tips

This goes well with a simple Spanish green salad of lettuce, baby spinach, tomato wedges, Spanish onion, and green olives tossed in a dressing of fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt and black pepper.

Trivia

Spanish chicken is behind a typical cryptic clue for a crossword: “A Spanish chicken and a baker’s dozen make for a disaster in space.” Baffled? Here’s the answer: the Spanish word for “chicken” is pollo, so a Spanish chicken is “a pollo”, and Apollo was a spacecraft. A baker’s dozen is 13, and Apollo 13 was a disaster in space. The answer is Apollo 13.