Chicken tray bake, with maple and cranberries

By Sofia Gallo @in_cucinacon_sofia

With the start of the New Year, we all think about what we could do in a different way. More and more families are switching to a sustainable life, and one of my changes is to be less wasteful and eat what is in season only. This traybake uses leftover cranberries I had purchased to make cranberry sauce and the result is tender chicken, covered in a sweet and in the same way tangy sauce.

Prep: 5 min

Cook: 25 min

Difficulty Easy

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

• 6 chicken thighs – already deboned, skin on or off as preferred
• 75 ml lager – optional
• 100 ml maple syrup
• 1 heaped tsp of Dijon mustard
• ½ chicken stock cube
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• A good handful of fresh cranberries
• Rosemary – fresh or dried
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat a frying pan and add your olive oil. Season your chicken thighs with salt and pepper and sear, skin down, until golden and set aside. Don’t worry about cooking the chicken through at this stage, as we will finish the cooking in the oven.
2. In the same pan, add to the chicken juices the lager, letting the alcohol burn for a few minutes, maple syrup, Dijon mustard and the chicken stock cube and whisk to a light sauce.
3. Place the chicken back in the frying pan, coat with the lovely sauce, top with fresh or dried rosemary and the cranberries and finish cooking in a preheated oven at 190° C – gas mark 5 for 20 - 25 minutes.

TIPS: 

• Please check your pan is oven proof, if not you can use an oven dish, placing your chicken first and covering with the sauce.
• If placing the pan in the oven, make sure to leave a tea towel on the handle to avoid burns and as a warning sign to everybody else in the household that the pan is scalding hot.