Apricot Chicken Tray Bake with Sweet Potato and Green Beans
Apricot Chicken but not as you know it. We’ve taken the classic 70’s family favourite and turned it into a modern traybake, packed with herbs, olives, capers and dried apricots with roasted sweet potato and red onion.
Look for dried apricots that are free from preservatives - these are usually a darker, brownish colour as they haven’t been treated with sulphur dioxide to make them bright orange.
If you can marinate the chicken for longer we recommend you do so. You could even marinate it the night before or in the morning.
In a large baking dish (we used one that was 40cm x 30cm) combine the olive oil, red wine vinegar, dried apricots, green olives, capers, juice and zest of an orange, garlic, herbs and bay leaves.
Mix together and then toss through the chicken drumsticks, sweet potato and red onion; season generously with salt and pepper. Allow the chicken to marinate if you’ve got time, but if not just while the oven heats up.
Pour over the stock and pop in the oven to cook for 1 hour and 10-20 minutes - time will vary slightly depending on your oven, you want most of the liquid to have evaporated, the chicken golden brown and the sweet potatoes nicely cooked. We recommend turning the drumsticks over after about 45 minutes so both sides can get nice and crisp.
When the apricot chicken is nearly cooked, prepare your green beans. Add the green beans and ½ cup of water to a large pan and bring to a boil, once the water has evaporated and green beans are al dente (approx. 4 minutes) then remove from the heat and add the butter, sprinkle with salt and toss well.
VARIATIONS
Vegetables
You can swap out the sweet potatoes for baby potatoes, agria potatoes or yams or a mixture.
You can swap out the green beans for broccoli or a simple garden salad.
Protein
You can use maryland chicken instead of drumsticks or thighs with the bone in. Note that cooking times may vary slightly depending on the cut you use. We recommend removing the chicken once it’s cooked, allowing the sweet potatoes to cook and crisp up slightly then adding the chicken back in for the last few minutes.
For a pescatarian option you can cook the sweet potatoes with the chicken marinade and then add white fish filets to the traybake, and cook for another 15 minutes or so.
For a vegetarian option swap out the chicken for 400g (1 tin) of chickpeas.
