Chocci’s chicken casserole

True to its four seasons in one day reputation, Melbourne has been spring t-shirt warm in the day time, dipping to thick coat and mittens required temperatures in the evening.

I thought a nice hot chicken casserole would help warm our tooties. I was in a lazy mood today, so this recipe is perfect for anyone with who’s got a couple of hours to spare to before dinner needs to be served but doesn’t want to spend more than 20 mins in the kitchen. You can prep everything, chuck it in the oven and simply put your feet up with a mag or book for an hour and half.

You’ll need:

• A whole chicken for roasting, divided into 8 portions. Usually you can pick up these roasting portions at the supermarket, if not, it works equally well to use 4 large drumsticks and 4 chicken thigh pieces, on the bone
• 100-150 gms of kalamata olives, with stones to keep the flavour in
• 4 medium sticks of carrots, cut into small pieces (2-3 cm pieces)
• 4 small potatoes, cut into quarters
• 1 small onion (or ½ large one), sliced thinly
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
• 10-12 basil leaves
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil

Preparation: Pan fry the chicken pieces in a pan (with a little olive oil) until golden brown on both sides. Transfer to a large casserole dish which has been oiled with olive oil, making sure you also pour over any juices. Pour over the can of diced tomatoes, mixed with about 2 cups of water (or stock if you want it to be extra tasty - I’ve done without in my cooking and it tastes fine without). Arrange the pieces of onions, potatoes and carrots around the pieces of chicken. Make sure all the ingredients are covered by the tomato sauce so that it cooks properly - if not, add a little extra water. Scatter the olives and cherry tomatoes on top. Finally, top the dish with basil leaves, and salt & pepper.

Cooking:

1. Seal the caCookingsserole firmly with foil and bake in oven at around 180 degrees for 1 hour or so until the chicken, carrots and potatoes are tender.
2. Remove foil and bake for another 10-15 mins to give some bits of the casserole (e.g. the sliced onions and chicken pieces) a nice browning. Note: Take care that the sauce doesn’t dry out too much when the foil’s off.