One-Pan Chicken and Chorizo Traybake

Chicken thighs and cooking chorizo roast together until the sausage bleeds its smoky, paprika-rich oil over sweet peppers and new potatoes. It's a genuine one-tin dinner: fifteen minutes of prep, then the oven does the work.

This is the traybake to reach for when you want maximum flavour for minimum effort. As the chorizo roasts it releases a smoky, garlicky oil that coats the chicken, peppers and potatoes, so everything tastes richer than the short ingredient list suggests. Load one tin, roast, and dinner for four looks after itself.

Ingredients

• 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs — about 1kg
• 225g cooking chorizo — thickly sliced
• 600g baby new potatoes — halved
• 2 red peppers — deseeded and cut into chunks
• 1 red onion — cut into wedges
• 4 garlic cloves — left whole, skin on
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 lemon — half juiced, half in wedges
• 1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley — roughly chopped, to serve
• 1 pinch flaky sea salt and black pepper

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200C fan (220C/gas 7). Tip the halved potatoes into a large, sturdy roasting tin, add 1 tbsp of the olive oil and a pinch of salt, and toss to coat. Roast on their own for 15 minutes to give them a head start.
2. Meanwhile, pat the chicken thighs dry and rub them with the remaining oil, the smoked paprika, oregano and a good seasoning of salt and pepper.
3. Take the tin out and add the peppers, red onion wedges, garlic cloves and sliced chorizo, tossing them through the part-roasted potatoes. Nestle the chicken thighs on top, skin-side up, so the skin sits proud and can crisp.
4. Return the tin to the oven and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the potatoes are tender, the chorizo is rendered and the chicken skin is deep golden.
5. Check the chicken is done: pierce the thickest thigh near the bone and make sure the juices run clear and there's no pink remaining, with the meat piping hot throughout. Give it a few more minutes if needed.
6. Squeeze over the juice of half the lemon, then scatter with parsley. Serve straight from the tin with the extra lemon wedges for squeezing.

Serve it with

• A crisp green salad with a sharp vinaigrette
• Warm crusty bread to mop up the smoky oil
• A dollop of garlicky aioli
• Buttered green beans or tenderstem broccoli
• A chilled glass of Spanish red or a cold beer

Why this works

Giving the potatoes a 15-minute head start means they finish tender at the same moment the chicken skin crisps, while the chorizo's rendered oil bastes everything with smoky, paprika-rich flavour you can't get from a spice jar alone.

Common swaps

• Use skinless chicken breasts if you prefer, but add them for only the final 25 minutes so they don't dry out.
• Swap new potatoes for chunks of sweet potato or butternut squash for a sweeter finish.
• No cooking chorizo? Cured chorizo works too; slice it thinner and add it with the chicken.
• Throw in a drained tin of butter beans for the last 15 minutes to bulk it out.
• Yellow or orange peppers work just as well as red if that's what you have.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Crowding the tin so everything steams instead of roasts; use one large tin or split across two so ingredients sit in a single layer.
• Skipping the potato head start, which leaves them undercooked while the chicken is ready.
• Placing chicken skin-side down, so it never crisps; keep it facing up and proud of the other ingredients.
• Not patting the chicken dry, which stops the skin from turning golden.

Storage, freezing & reheating

Storage: Cool leftovers quickly and keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Freezing: Freeze the cooled chicken and chorizo (without the potatoes, which go grainy) for up to 2 months. Defrost fully in the fridge before reheating.

Reheating: Reheat in a covered dish at 180C for 15 to 20 minutes, or until piping hot throughout.

Estimated nutrition

Per serving, estimated from typical ingredient values — not a substitute for precise dietary calculation.