Crisp Skinned Chicken and Chorrizo over Veggies- One Pan Wonder!

This is one is for all you momas out there. It's for those desperate times when you need to feed a crowd (or just a couple) and you want something fan-flippity-tastic, but are lacking the gumption to slave for hours in the kitchen. You and your brood are going to be blowing me air kisses over this one, I tell you! It is gonna look like a lot of ingredients and work, but I pinky-promise that it's not. In fact, you can assemble giant pans of this in the morning, Saran wrap them and tuck in the fridge. Then it just gets thrown in the oven to cook while you read. Or win the Nobel Prize for science. Or paint your nails. I originally saw this idea on a cooking show with Nigella Lawson. She just threw a bunch of things in the pan, in her winsome "I can't be bothered" way. When I tried it, it was good, but not as flavorsome as I wanted. I've made this recipe for three years now, and I think I have perfected it for my family. Yes, mine takes a lot more steps, but if you "can be bothered" it is SO worth it!

I do a big mix of goodies under my chicken so that it feeds a crowd, and takes care of the veggie side-dish conundrum. I go with taters, carrots, onion, and mushrooms. If any of those offend, leave them out!  First off, I cube taters and carrots. Cut the taters around the size of sugar cubes, and the carrots about half that size. Carrots take longer to cook. Drizzle liberally with olive oil. This will help the seasoning to stick, and also help the veg to roast. Throw in several cloves of chopped garlic, salt and pepper, and Herb de Province or Italian Seasoning. If you haven't tried Herb de Provence, I'd encourage you to. It is a French herb mix that is especially good with chicken, and just about everything else in the world too! Toss this with your hands and put in a shallow layer onto rimmed baking sheets. I am not giving amounts for any of this, because you simply make the amount needed for the amount of people to be fed. I'm cooking for Family Supper night, so mine is proportionate for The Hoard.

Once you have your taters in the pan, use the bowl for the onions and mushrooms. I cut the mushrooms in half, or leave small ones whole. They shrink when the cook, and when they are big they are easily avoided by picky eaters. Same with the onion. Half it and then cut into wedges and separate the layers. Again- olive oil, salt, pepper, Herb de Provence. Do you see how much is on there before I toss it? Like I tell my cooking class kids- this is your food, don't be skimpy! There is nothing worse than bland, under-seasoned food. When it is tossed you should still be able to see lots of spice. I use coarse Kosher salt in everything because I can see exactly how much I am using. And I think it has a much better (less biting) taste than plain table salt.

Add these to your pans of taters. This picture is to show you the amount I am making. These are 11x15 pans, and I am feeding nine hungry folks, plus hoping for a tiny bit of leftovers.

On to the chicken. Chicken is lovely and versatile, but can often be dry, bland, or boring. Or the worst, all three!! This chicken is going to be the glorious opposite of all that. And those little tubes of pork chorizo sausage are going to help this along. Nigella cut up slices of a hard, dry-cured chorizo. I have never found that here, only the tubes of soft sausage. But it works perfectly for what I want it to do, which is add megawatts of flavor! And, I've had people who thought they hated chorizo eat this unawares and be enraptured...

I got thighs and legs, because dark meat stays so moist when baked, but I have also done it many times with breasts. YOU MUST HAVE SKIN-ON MEAT. If not, the meat will cook up dry and tough and be terrible. The fat in the skin bastes the meat, keeping it moist, and as it renders it becomes crackling crisp, while all the juices saturate the veggies below. It is a whole symphony of one thing helping another to be delicious! But, we don't want too much fat, and we sure don't want floppy, flabby skin. So turn each thigh, or breast, over and cut off all the extra skin that they tuck underneath. Before...

Here is is after surgery. Only the skin on top of the thigh, that will be toward the heat and become crispy, is left on.

Now salt, pepper, and Herb the bare underside. Chicken that is not thoroughly seasoned is bland!

Now, here is the very best trick of all! You squeeze out a lump of chorizo and tuck it up and under the skin, then fold it back down and press to seal. The sausage will cook under there, and release all the paprika juices to permeate the meat. So much flavor! If you have had chorizo and found it too hot, this brand from Wal-mart is usually pretty mild, and it gets more so after being baked an hour. Don't skip this step!

You don't need to trim any skin on legs, just tuck chorizo under.

That's a lot of chow! But we aren't through making it flavorful yet...

The crispy skin is one of my favs, so I don't want it pale and unseasoned. Drizzle olive oil over the chicken and rub in, then sprinkle with your trinity of salt, pepper, and Herb de Province. All the extra chorizo gets blobbed over the veggies. I specifically put it on the mushrooms, because they have a tendency to get really done more quickly than the other veg. This keeps them moist and adds flavor. Now you have pans full of chicken and veggies are that bursting with flavors and they haven't even begun to cook yet. This is when you can cover with Saran wrap and put in the fridge to wait for several hours. I would not do this more than about 10 ahead, because you don't want your taters to discolor.

Take your pans out of the fridge and sit on the counter for about an hour before you begin to cook so they can come up to room temp. Have your oven preheated to 400 degrees and then pop these in to roast for about an hour, maybe a tad more. After about 20 minutes check to see if anything is getting overly brown (like onion strips sticking up) and give it a stir to bring lesser cooked veg to the top. At an hour the veggies should be fork tender, and the meat should have juice that run clear (pinkish means it is still bloody) when you put a knife in toward the bone. If you are unsure, use a meat thermometer and test for 160 degrees. Remember that it will continue to cook when you pull it out.

 You can see just how crisp the skin has gotten, and that knob of chorizo peeking out. If this pan looks different than the ones at the top it is because the pics are from two different suppers. I use what I have at the time. This time I only had mushrooms and bags of multi-color baby taters from Aldi.

You can serve this right in the trays, and add a salad and crusty bread. But most times I pile the chicken on a platter and scrape the veggies into a big bowl. 

  Put a big spoon into the veggies, because we love to get the orange-y red juice from the chicken and chorizo to sop up with the bread! (Look at that steam!)

This is a seriously tasty meal with no hard work, just a bit of prep. And my family is crazy about it. My meat-atarian youngest son even loves the veggies so much that he will just eat them alone as a meal. I hope you will try this, Dear Reader, and find it an easy fix for a couple or a crowd!