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Butterbean Chicken Traybake

The beauty of a chicken traybake is in the versatility. You can substitute the veggies and spices to basically whatever you like and still end up with a really satisfying meal. One of my favourite combinations is to use carrots, spinach and butterbeans.  It uses a chorizo / paprika mix as it's base but you'll do just as well here if you vary that up and try other combinations. 

Gather the Good Stuff:

  1. Chicken - Basically however much you need to feed your guests / family but please, use thighs and legs. If you use breasts, they almost certainly will get dried out and tough. Pat them dry with the skin on and apply a generous dose of salt & pepper. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes before you start cooking  
  2. 4-5 carrots - peeled and cut into bite size rounds 
  3. 2 x 400g cans of butterbeans - rinsed 
  4. 300g spinach - washed and shredded 
  5. 1 or 2 chorizo sausages - diced into small chunks
  6. 1 large onion or 1 leek
  7. 2 tsp smoked paprika 
  8. 2-3 cloves garlic 
  9. 300ml chicken broth 
  10. 1/2 cup white wine or broth for deglazing 

Putting it Together

If you have a very heavy oven pan and a gas stovetop you can likely do all of these steps in the pan you are using. if not, just do the browning etc in a heavy skillet and transfer into your oven pan 

  1. Heat a glug  of oil in your skillet over medium heat
  2. Pre-heat your oven to 210C 
  3. Brown chicken skin side down. You don't need to cook these through at all. just give them a good 3-4 minutes on the skin side and 1-2 on the bottom to get a good texture and colour. Set aside on a plate 
  4. Drain most of the chicken fat from the pan but don't remove the fond. Add chorizo to the hot oil.
  5. After 1-2 minutes add the leeks or onions and fry with the chorizo until soft. 4-5 minutes 
  6. Add the paprika and the garlic and fry for 1 minutes 
  7. Add the spinach to the pan and allow to wilt down about 3 minutes
  8. Add the wine and bring the heat up to medium high
  9. Continue to fry until about 75% of the moisture has evaporated
  10.  Add the beans / carrots and fry for another 2-3 minutes 
  11. Adjust for salt and pepper and transfer to your baking tray. Spread evenly across the tray 
  12. Place your chicken skin side up on top of the mixture. Carefully pour in the additional broth 
  13. Bake for 30-40 minutes until chicken is cooked and most of the moisture has been absorbed into the beans 
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