Recipe: Sesame Lemon Chicken Tray Bake

I recently decided that I want to start preparing meals for my husband for when he is at work during the week as he often comes home from a long day of treating patients and complains that he hasn’t eaten anything all day! Having had enough of his complaints I decided to look into simple, one-dish meals I can prepare for him in advance and the recipe of sesame lemon chicken caught my eye.

It is super quick to prepare and makes a hearty, flavourful dish with some great added texture from the sesame seeds.

Ingredients

8 chicken thighs
1kg of peeled butternut squash cut into chunks
1 garlic bulb, broken into cloves, unpeeled
2 tbsp of oil
2 lemons, quartered
240g of tenderstem broccoli
2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
Sprinkle of sesame seeds

Method

First things first, preheat your oven to 180°C.
Place the chicken thighs in a large roasting tin, scatter the garlic cloves and butternut squash around it before drizzling with the oil. Squeeze the juice from the lemon pieces over the tray and tuck the empty lemon shells amongst the chicken and squash. Bake for 40 mins.
Blanch the tenderstem broccoli for 2 minutes, drain and set aside.
Take the roasting tray out of the oven and mix in the tenderstem broccoli.
Drizzle the honey or syrup all over the tray and sprinkle with a generous amount of sesame seeds.
Put the tray back in the oven for 10 more minutes until the chicken is sticky and golden.
Serve with a side dish of rice.