There are quite a few people in my house  on a regular basis – I’ve given birth to most of them, so it’s no great surprise to me that our dinner table is usually pretty crowded. I could be organised and make things ahead of time or find other time saving methods of food preparation, but I prefer to put several items in one pan and see what happens. It’s more fun that way.

One of our staples is a chicken, chorizo, and potato dish, courtesy of Nigella Lawson. It’s one pan cooking and it’s delicious to boot. As an added bonus, there is not one thing in it that my kids meticulously pick out.

I use chicken thighs because they’re cheap and have far more flavour than chicken breasts. Also, they don’t tend to dry out, which is essential for this dish. By the time the potatoes are cooked, the chicken breasts would be like a loofah sponge. Skin on breasts on the bone might fare better, and you could certainly use legs as well.

Most of the flavour in this recipe comes from the chorizo, which has a wonderfully smoky, paprika-laden taste. A little goes a long way – you don’t need a lot of chorizo to get a lot of flavour. It releases so much aromatic oil that you don’t need to add much olive oil to the pan before roasting. It coats the potatoes and gives them a lovely, sticky exterior.

If you have leftover potatoes (I always add too many to the tin), they are fantastic sautéed quickly in a frying pan the next morning with a couple of poached eggs on top.

The original recipe is here: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/spanish-chicken-with-chorizo-and-potatoes-5160

Unlike Nigella (which is odd, because we’re so alike in many ways), I don’t cook this in two separate tins. The less dish washing I have to do in my life, the better. What I do find is that I can’t overcrowd the pan or else the potatoes will never get crisp. Just make sure your tin is big enough so that nothing is overlapping too much. Otherwise, use two tins and get your minions to do your washing up for you.

This recipe is easily doubled, although you will definitely need two roasting pans for that.

Chicken With Chorizo and Potatoes

Serves 4-6 (or 2 adults and 3 children, with a bit extra for lunch the next day)

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
12 chicken thighs
750g chorizo sausage, diced (I also use small cooking chorizo sausages, which don’t need to be diced)
1kg new potatoes, cut into 1” pieces
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp oregano
Zest of 1 orange
Salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 220 Celcius or 425 Farenheit

In a large roasting tin, toss all of the ingredients together until the potatoes and chicken are well coated. Cook for 45 minutes, turning the potatoes and chicken over halfway through cooking.

That’s it. I wish I had more instructions to give you, but it’s that easy. Feel free to artfully garnish this with chopped parsley.