A complete roast dinner with only 10 minutes of preparation, ready in under an hour and using just one tray (so hardly any washing up). Chicken wrapped in parma ham with potatoes, parsnips, carrots, peas and even the gravy!
I said last week that I don’t remember much of the food from my childhood and as I came to write this post I realised that that’s not strictly true. I don’t remember all that much about what we ate during the week but I do remember always having a roast on Sunday lunchtimes, and then a lovely Sunday tea in the evening with sandwiches and treats like fondant fancies and coconut macaroons.
I always enjoyed my Sunday roasts as a child and it’s something I love making for my family. However, I’ve come to realise that sometimes life gets in the way a bit and I don’t always have time to head off and spend a couple of hours in the kitchen getting it all ready (OK I’m not actually doing things for the entire 2 hours, but I do have to keep popping in and out to roast, boil, baste, mix, etc… and then wash up the hundreds of dishes and spoons I seem to use in the process).
I realised that I needed something like a Sunday roast but with a lot less effort and so I created this Sunday roast traybake – Chicken (breast so it’s quick to cook) with potatoes, parsnips, carrots, peas and even the gravy all in one tray.
It only takes 10 minutes of actual effort and it’s ready in under an hour. The absolute best bit is that it’s all made in just one tray so there’s no need to spend ages cleaning up afterwards. The only thing that’s missing is the Yorkshire puddings (sadly there’s just no way to get those into the one tray along with everything else!).
FREE GRAMS TO CUPS CONVERSION CHARTS
Subscribe to the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen mailing list to get your FREE printable grams to cups and cups to grams conversion charts for twelve popular baking ingredients
Easy One-Tray Roast Chicken
INGREDIENTS
- 4 chicken breasts
- 4 slices parma ham - optional
- 600 g new potatoes
- 4 large carrots - about 600g
- 4 medium-large parsnips - about 600g
- A few sprigs of thyme
- 200 g frozen peas - about 4 handfuls
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 300 ml hot chicken stock - or 300ml hot water + 1½ chicken sock cubes
- Salt
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC/180ºC fan.
- Wrap the chicken in parma ham and place on to a large baking tray.
- Peel the carrots and parsnips, and chop the carrots, parsnips and new potatoes into bite sized pieces. Add them to the baking tray ensuring they’re in a single layer. Lay the thyme on top and season with salt.
- In a cup or small bowl mix the brown sugar (1 tbsp), apple cider vinegar (2 tbsp) and olive oil (3 tbsp). Spoon the mixture over the chicken and vegetables ensuring they are all coated.
- Place the tray into the oven and cook for 20 minutes. You need to ensure that everything is in a single layer in your baking tray otherwise it will not cook properly. If your baking tray isn’t large enough, split the ingredients between two trays.
- Turn the vegetables, baste the chicken with the sauce and return the tray to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
- Add the peas and chicken stock, ensuring the peas are covered in the stock to help them cook evenly, and return the tray to the oven for a final 10 minutes.
- Serve.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
More low-effort dinner inspiration…
For another delicious low-effort Sunday lunch you could try these STEAK & MUSHROOM PIES which need less that 10 minutes of your time in the kitchen, or for something a little different how about these BRUNCH POTATOES topped with a fried egg or this BAKED CHORIZO AND ASPARAGUS RISOTTO.
Free From/Suitable For…
The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time.
- Egg-Free
- Dairy-Free
- Tree Nut-Free
- Peanut-Free
- Sesame-Free
- Soya-Free
- Sulphur Dioxide & Sulphite-Free
- Fish-Free
- Crustacean-Free
- Mollusc-Free
- Celery-Free
- Mustard-Free
- Lupin-Free
This recipe can be made gluten-free by using gluten-free stock.
Pin This Recipe For Later
Martin says
This ruined my Christmas. It was not cooked and tasted awful. Not sure why all you lot think it’s good.
Marian Campbell says
Maybe you weren’t paying attention to cooking. I highly doubt that a rude comment was necessary for you to leave especially blaming a dish that you clearly wanted to make for your Christmas dinner
AJ says
Tried this today and it was delicious. Just a though can this be cooked in the slow cooker?
Charlotte Oates says
I don’t actually own a slow cooker so I’m not sure – sorry.
Louise Savage says
Excellent one tray meal with little fuss and the grandchildren loved it.
Kelly says
Thanks for your reply, I have made this dish with and without adding the gravy/peas and they both turned out wonderfully. It’s now a family favourite – thank you 🙂
Kelly says
Hi, By putting gravy in with the pots etc, how do you stop everything from becoming soggy?
Charlotte Oates says
The gravy is added quite late in the cooking process so the potatoes, etc. don’t have time to go soggy. They do soften around the edges, but I like that 🙂
Wayne burke says
Lovely sounds so simple just what you need when the rugby is on thanks let’s see how it goes.
Susie says
I love how easy this is. We’re trying to eat more healthily this year and so I’ve been trying lots of different recipes and this is definitely one I’ll be making again.
Sarah says
Just found your blog for the first time and I’m really impressed. Thank you for sharing such good advice and great recipes.
I am about to make your breakfast pancakes and I think we might have this roast chicken bake for supper.
I wonder if you could add the yorkshire pudding – like toad in the hole? lol.
Thanks again
Charlotte Oates says
You couldn’t add Yorkshire pudding mix to this one sadly as not all the ingredients are added at the same time and it’s cooked at a lower temperature than you’d use for Yorkshire pudding, but you’ve given me an idea to create one that would work 🙂
Joyce Barnett says
Love the salmon one pot meal and the chicken on Parma ham – quick and easy no fuss how I like it. Will be trying these over the coming evenings.
Thanks Charlotte very inspirational as always.
Joyce
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Joyce, I hope you enjoy them both.
Gram E says
Can’t wait to try this one! Our son and daughter in law are having their first child in a couple of months. (Our first grand child in 23 yrs, first granddaughter in 25 yrs). Needless to say we are all excited. Neither one of the parents are much on cooking, take out or go out has been their way of eating most of the time. We are looking for things that we can prepare ahead of time that can be frozen to help them through the first time parent craziness. Is this something we could do that with and/or there any of your other lovely recipes that would work?
Charlotte Oates says
Congratulations on the imminent arrival of your granddaughter, it must be an exciting time for you 🙂
I wouldn’t freeze and reheat this particular recipe, it’s definitely best eaten fresh. I’ve got quite a few other recipes that would be suitable though – spaghetti bolognese (sauce only and cook the spaghetti fresh when it’s wanted), steak and mushroom pies, lasagne, cottage pie, chicken and sweet potato curry, chilli con carne, and sausage and mushrooms with mustard and cider. Make sure they’re fully defrosted and hot all the way through when you reheat them. You can either find them all using the search thing in my sidebar or they’re all in my main meals menu. If you need any help with how to reheat any of them then let me know.
I hope that helps.
bakingaddict says
I love one tray recipes and this looks like the perfect weekend roast with minimal fuss but great taste and flavour. Thanks for entering AlphaBakes.
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Ros. It’s perfect for a low effort Sunday lunch. What’s the letter for AlphaBakes for April?
Eb Gargano says
Wow – this looks awesome, Charlotte – right up my street! I totally agree about the time-consuming nature of the traditional roast dinner – it is something I grew up with too, but rarely make for myself, and as you say it’s not just the cooking time, it’s the ridiculous amount of washing up they generate! It’s the thing I love about traybakes – hardly any washing up – and I think they taste better too…all those lovely flavours mingling together 🙂 Eb x
Charlotte Oates says
I’m becoming quite a traybake convert, I still need to try your lamb.
Joleen @ Joleen Cuisine says
Yay for simple recipes! Also love how creative you got with wrapping the chicken in the parma-thumbs up 🙂
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Joleen, I’m a big fan of Parma ham and whilst the chicken taste nice enough without it, it makes it look a lot prettier!