Cajun Chicken Traybake
Jamie Oliver’s £1 Wonders are simple, delicious recipes coming in at £1 per portion. If you’re looking for new family favourites that are affordable and packed with veg, try these!
Family meals that don’t cost the earth!
Looking for some new family favourites that are still simple and affordable?
With more than 30 delicious dishes that won’t blow the budget, Jamie Oliver’s £1 Wonders recipe collection has something for everyone. Featuring Jamie’s tried-and-tested recipes for quick roasts, satisfying stews and tasty pastas, these meals all come in at less than £1 a portion and are sure to become your new family favourites.
We love this cajun chicken traybake from Jamie! One-pot cooking is low energy and low cost, and a great way to pack more veg into a meal without fancy cooking techniques. We hope it will become one of your family’s favourites, too.
To find more inspiration from Jamie’s £1 Wonders, just download the free PDF of the whole collection or visit the website here.
Cajun Chicken Traybake
Jamie Oliver
Serves: 4
Prep time: 7 mins
Cook time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
2 red onions
3 mixed-colour peppers
4 chicken legs, skin on, bone-in
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
4 cloves of garlic
olive oil
red wine vinegar
1 mug of basmati rice (300g)
4 tablespoons natural yoghurt
optional: extra virgin olive oil
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6. Peel and halve the onions. Tear up the peppers into big chunks, discarding the seeds and stalks. Place it all in a 35cm x 25cm roasting tray with the chicken, Cajun seasoning and whole unpeeled garlic cloves. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon each of olive oil and red wine vinegar, season with black pepper and toss well, turning the chicken skin side up. Roast for 40 minutes.
2. Boil the kettle. Remove the tray from the oven and mash the soft garlic cloves into the tray juices, discarding the skins. Around the chicken, pour in 1 mug of rice and 2 mugs of boiling kettle water (600ml). Carefully cover with tin foil and return to the oven for 20 minutes, or until the rice is fluffy and the chicken pulls easily away from the bone.
3. Season to perfection, then serve with dollops of yoghurt, a pinch of black pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, if you like.
Engaging Kids
Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.
Kids in the kitchen
Get kids tearing the pepper, setting the oven to preheat, putting everything in the tray and tossing together, and setting the timer! They could also put the kettle on to boil and pour the mug of rice in carefully (the tray will be hot!). Some may also enjoy dolloping the yogurt and drizzling with olive oil at the end, too.
Master these skills:
Washing hands, Cleaning vegetables, Weighing, Tasting
Activities
While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.
Sensory
Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.
Kids in the Kitchen
Get kids tearing the pepper, setting the oven to preheat, putting everything in the tray and tossing together, and setting the timer! They could also put the kettle on to boil and pour the mug of rice in carefully (the tray will be hot!). Some may also enjoy dolloping the yogurt and drizzling with olive oil at the end, too.
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