Roast Chicken and Potato Bake

A whole chicken is one of the cheapest ways to feed four people, and this uses one dish for the lot. The French onion sachet and 300ml of cream make the potato sauce with nothing to whisk, and slicing the potatoes thin plus a 10-minute head start in the microwave is what makes an hour long enough. There’s no basting, no turning, no watching it.

Two shortcuts stacked. The potatoes go in the microwave with a splash of water for 10 minutes first, which means they’re already soft when they go in the oven, and the French onion soup sachet mixed with cream is the whole sauce. Butterflying the chicken flattens it so it cooks in an hour instead of the hour and a half a whole bird usually wants.

Slice the potatoes thin, a mandolin is easiest but a knife is fine, because thick slices won’t be cooked when the chicken is. Make sure every potato slice is coated in the cream mixture or the top ones dry out. Butterfly the chicken, which just means cutting down the backbone and pressing it flat, and season the skin properly with salt and pepper. It goes in at 180°C fan-forced for about an hour, and you want the chicken golden and the potatoes soft before it comes out. Let it sit for a few minutes before you carve.

Swap the sweet potato for another regular potato if that suits your house better, or add sliced fennel or leek in with the onion. If you’d rather not deal with a whole bird, chicken thighs on top of the same potato base work well and cook faster.

Steamed broccoli is what the recipe suggests and it’s the right call, since the dish is already rich. Green beans, peas or a simple salad all do the same job.

Pull the chicken off the bones and keep it with the potatoes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat it covered so the chicken doesn’t dry out. Any leftover chicken is good in sandwiches or through a salad the next day.

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