Tray baked roast chicken with pumpkin, sage leaves and red onion. This healthy meal is easy to prepare, economical and delicious! A family friendly dinner that’s gluten free and dairy free.
I am such a huge fan of batch cooking; this roast chicken with pumpkin, sage and red onion is such a lifesaver meal. During the week, I am so busy with my office job and uni work that the idea of cooking something from scratch when I get home most evenings is just downright awful – and I LOVE to cook. Although I am not averse to some scrambled eggs when there’s nothing else in the fridge, another way of solving this dilemma is making an enormous tray bake on a Sunday, like this one.
This tray baked roast chicken with pumpkin smells so damn good while it’s roasting in the oven and will easily feed you for a few days. It’s also gorgeous enough to serve as a main if you are dining with a group, straight out of a rustic oven tray.
If you do try this, make sure you do reserve all of the beautiful pan juices as this contains all the nourishing minerals from the roasted chicken bones (more notes on this in the recipe) – I love to use a bit of this to flavour stir fries and sautéed veggies.
Roast Chicken with Pumpkin, Sage and Red Onion
Ingredients
- 1-1.3 kg bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces
- 1 medium size pumpkin or butternut squash (about 700 grams)
- 2 red onions
- 1 head garlic
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp honey
- 3 tbsp dried sage (or a small bunch of fresh leaves)
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C. Take a large roasting tray with raised edges and lightly rub with olive oil or otherwise prep so it doesn't get too sticky (I like to line the bottom of my old tray with baking paper which makes cleaning up a dream!).
- In a mug whisk together the extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey.
- Peel and chop the onions into eighths. Wash the pumpkin/squash and cut into large chunks. Break the head of garlic in to individual cloves, but do not peel.
- Place the chicken pieces, pumpkin/squash, onion and garlic into the roasting tray. Pour the oil mixture all over and use your hands to rub the mixture over everything, then spread it all out evenly over the roasting tray.
- Season liberally with salt and pepper, then finish by sprinkling over the dried sage. (If you're using fresh sage leaves rub them in when you're rubbing in the olive oil, or tuck them in around the mix now).
- Place in the oven and roast for approximately 60 minutes or until the chicken skin is turning nice and dark golden brown, the vegetables are soft and the whole thing smells heavenly.
- Serve immediately (I recommend with steamed broccolini or green beans) or divide up in to containers and store in the fridge for future meals, this will last a good few days in the fridge. I like to store the chicken and veggies separately so I can use them in different meals.
- When you're serving or storing, don't forget the delicious pan juices. Use these as a sauce or if you're storing it, pour it all in to a little jar. It will turn into a delicious jelly-like substance (it's all that nourishing bone broth, gelatinised) - you can melt it down for a sauce or use it to flavour other dishes as a stock paste. It will last a week in the fridge. Also don't forget those roasted garlic cloves - squeeze out the inside for the most incredible flavour hit.
Notes
I have a pumpkin to use up and this recipe looks great!
Is it possible to freeze the leftovers? If yes, then would you say it’s possible to freeze all the components together so you’d have a complete meal for future reference?
Yes, you could definitely freeze the leftovers of this 🙂 The pumpkin is likely to be a bit more soft/soggy when you defrost it, but otherwise no issues and I don’t really mind soft pumpkin anyway!