Roast chicken traybake with squash, sage and lemon crème fraîche
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 30 mins to 1 hour
- Serve
- Serves 4
This simple traybake elevates classic squash and sage with mushrooms, capers and a lovely lemon crème fraîche dressing.
By Rukmini Iyer
Ingredients
- 1 small butternut squash, cut into 2cm/¾in slices, seeds removed
- 1½ lemons, 1 cut into quarters and ½ zested
- 1kg/2lb 4oz free-range chicken thighs, skin-on and bone-in
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 whole garlic bulb, halved horizontally
- 10 fresh sage leaves
- 15g/½oz dried mushrooms (such as shiitake or mixed)
- 150g/5½oz crème fraîche
- 1 tbsp capers, roughly chopped
- 250g/9oz mixed mushrooms, thickly sliced or whole if small (such as shiitake and portobello)
- 1 tbsp honey
- sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Tip the squash, quartered lemon, chicken thighs, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and 1 teaspoon of sea salt flakes into a roasting tin large enough to hold everything in one layer, then mix to coat everything evenly in the oil. (I use disposable gloves for this.)
Add in the halved bulb of garlic, scatter with half of the sage leaves, then transfer to the oven to roast for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with 150ml/¼ pint just-boiled water. In another small bowl, mix the crème fraîche with the lemon zest, then set aside.
After 15 minutes, roughly chop the soaked mushrooms, reserving the liquid. Remove the roasting tin from the oven and add the capers along with both the fresh and soaked mushrooms, with their reserved liquid, to the tin around the chicken. Drizzle the mushrooms with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and the chicken with the honey. Scatter over the remaining sage leaves, then roast for a further 30–35 minutes, prodding halfway if needed, until cooked through. (If your chicken thighs are particularly large, cook for 35–40 minutes.)
Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes. Squeeze ½ bulb of roasted garlic and 2 of the roasted lemon wedges into the bowl with the crème fraiche and mix. Taste and season as needed with salt and pepper. Season the chicken with sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, and serve hot with the lemon crème fraîche alongside.
Recipe tips
You can add the juices from the tin into the crème fraiche, or mop them up with crusty bread. Any leftovers are fantastic stirred through a bag of pre-cooked puy lentils.
