Roasted vegetables with chicken thighs and herb butter

Roasted vegetables with chicken thighs and herb butter: a hearty traybake with sweet potatoes, carrots, courgette, red onion, garlic and fresh herbs.

At a glance

• Serves 3
• Prep time: 15 min
• Cooking time: 40 min
• Total time: 55 min
• Calories: 520 kcal per serving
• Protein: 38 g
• Fat: 30 g
• Carbs: 24 g

Ingredients

• 6 chicken thighs
• 3 carrots
• 2 sweet potatoes (diced)
• 1 red onion (in wedges)
• 1 courgette (in half-moons)
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• For the herb butter: 30 g butter
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp rosemary
• For the herb butter: 1 tbsp parsley
• Salt, black pepper

Method

You’ll need: oven · baking tray · chopping board · knife

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C (180 °C fan) and get a large baking tray ready. Cut the carrots, sweet potatoes, red onion and courgette into pieces and spread them on the tray.
2. Toss the veg with olive oil, salt, black pepper, thyme and rosemary. Spread everything out so it can roast as evenly as possible.
3. Pat the chicken thighs dry, rub them with olive oil, salt and black pepper and place them on top of the veg. This way the meat cooks above the veg and releases some juices into it.
4. Roast everything at 200 °C for 35–40 min until the chicken thighs are golden brown and cooked through and the veg is soft and lightly roasted. If needed, move the tray up a shelf towards the end so the skin gets more colour.
5. For the herb butter, mix the butter with the parsley and garlic. Set aside until serving.
6. Take the tray out of the oven and leave it to rest briefly. Put the herb butter on the hot chicken thighs and serve straight away with the roasted veg.

Good to know

A traybake like this takes a lot of the work out of dinner and still tastes like a proper meal. Crisp outside, juicy inside, with warm veg and a little herb butter on top.

Swaps

Chicken thighs → skinless chicken thigh fillets (still plenty of protein); butter → ghee (heat-stable; contains milk); sweet potatoes → squash (similar fibre content); courgette → fennel (more flavour, also provides fibre).

Allergens

Contains milk (butter). Well suited to children if moderately seasoned and the meat is cooked right through; also suitable in pregnancy as long as it's thoroughly cooked and the ingredients are fresh and carefully prepared.