Paprika Chicken Bake

Yesterday’s weather was much more appropriate for a winter’s day than one this close to the middle of summer. Chef Gerald spent the whole day indoors playing with the presents he received from Santa, while Mummy and Daddy braved the outdoors for a little while only to return shivering and in desperate need of a hot cup of tea.

Dinner had to both warm and cheer us up, and remind us that it’s still summer after all 🙂 This taste.com.au inspired dish looks very cheerful and we all loved it because:

–          It contains some of our favourite summer vegetables

–          It makes use of one of our most favourite spices at the moment – smoked paprika. Chef Gerald took a long time to understand that he needn’t eat the entire contents of the paprika jar at once 🙂

–          The only washing up generated during the preparation and cooking of this dish are a chopping board, a knife and a baking dish, which is not bad if you’re still in lazy holiday mode 🙂

Paprika Chicken Bake

4 boneless chicken thighs

2 large potatoes, peeled, quartered

2 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks

2 red capsicums, cored, quartered, then cut into 3 cm slices

6 ripe roma tomatoes, peeled, chopped – or 1 x 400 g can tinned tomatoes

2 yellow squash, quartered

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 tbsp fresh oregano leaves, roughly chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp sweet paprika (reduce this to 1 tsp if you don’t love paprika as much as we do)

1 tsp smoked paprika

16 black olives

2 tbsp chopped parsley, to garnish

Daddy calls me Spud - I wonder why?

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, chopped oregano, spices, salt and pepper and mix well. Set aside.

Place the chicken thighs, potatoes, garlic, tomatoes and capsicums in a large baking dish. Some overlapping may be necessary depending on the size and shape of your dish, but try to avoid this as the tomatoes and capsicums will be releasing a lot of liquid and we do not want to end up with something too soupy.

Brush the oil and spice mixture over the chicken and vegetable pieces, then toss with a spoon to ensure everything is evenly coated.

Place in the oven and bake for approximately 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from the oven, then add the sweet potatoes and squash, basting with some of the liquid in the pan. Return to the oven and bake for another 20 minutes or until the all vegetables are tender.

Remove from the oven, switch the oven off, add the olives and parsley, then return to the oven for another 10 minutes before serving.  I find that cooking the olives  for too long makes them lose some of their flavour, so by keeping this in a warm oven for a few minutes the olives will warm through but will still maintain all their flavour. Serves 4.