BEANS | EPISODE 5 Romesco chickpeas and chicken traybake

Welcome back to episode 5 of my series BEANS. This is an all in one traybake number thats ideal for a midweek dinner and it’s the perfect gateway recipe to get someone who doesn’t usually eat beans, to eat beans. A romesco chickpea, potato and onion traybake topped with a buttery, herby spatchcocked chicken. SO delicious.

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
2 jars of chickpeas
150g baby potatoes
2 red onions
olive oil
salt and pepper

for the romesco:
1 jar of roasted red peppers
handful of almonds (they should be blanched, mine weren’t, sue me)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 garlic clove 30-50ml chicken stock
salt and pepper
squeeze of olive oil

For the herby butter and salsa:
3 tbsp chopped fresh chives
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil
2 tbsp chopped capers
1 clove of garlic
1 red chilli, diced
1/2 a lemon, juiced
75g softened butter

Method:
Preheat the oven to 190C. Spatchcock the chicken, salt it heavily and set it aside (there’s a video further down my page showing how to do this).

Meanwhile, drain and rinse the chickpeas and then pour into a baking tray. Add in halved potatoes and onion cut into rough half moon slices. Drizzle with olive oil and salt.

In a blender, whizz up all the romesco ingredients and pour this over the chickpeas etc. mix well.

Add all the herbs into a bowl along with capers, chilli and minced garlic. Mix well and then scoop out half the mixture and put it in another bowl. Top one bowl up with olive oil and the lemon juice and beat butter into the other one.

Pat the chicken dry and spread the herby butter in and around the chicken and then lay it on top of the chickpeas. put the whole lot in the oven for about an hour.

Once finished, serve with the herby salsa on top and enjoy!