Sticky Thighs, Sweet Potato and One Tin to Wash

It is a Tuesday evening in late October. I have been on my feet since six this morning, the light has gone, and there are hungry people in my house who do not care that I cook for a living. On a night like this I do not want a sauce to stir or three pans to watch. I want to put one tin in the oven, pour myself a glass of something, and come back to a finished dinner. That is what a chicken traybake is for, and I will tell you honestly, it is one of the best things England taught me.

Back home in Guadeloupe my mother did the same thing in her own way. One big pot on the stove, everything in it, the lid on, and the kitchen smelling of thyme and onion while she got on with seven children. She did not call it a one-pot meal. She called it dinner. When I first saw an English friend tip chicken and vegetables into a roasting tin and walk away, I recognised it straight away. Same idea, different heat.

So this is my version. Chicken thighs, skin on, rubbed with my BBQ Sauce so the skin goes dark and sticky. Underneath, sweet potato, red pepper and red onion that catch the juices and go soft and caramelised at the edges. Allspice and thyme, because that is how my mother seasoned everything. A squeeze of lime at the end to wake it all up. Ten minutes of chopping, forty in the oven, and one tin to wash. Let me show you.

Recipe at a glance

• Cuisine: Caribbean, cooked the English way
• Prep: 10 minutes • Cook: 40 minutes • Total: 50 minutes
• Serves: 4
• Featured sauce: BBQ Sauce
• Heat level: 4/10, warm and sweet rather than hot, children eat this happily
• Diet: Gluten free and dairy free as written (see the FAQ for allergens)

What you’ll need

Buy thighs with the bone in and the skin on. The bone keeps the meat juicy for the full forty minutes and the skin is where the sauce goes sticky. Boneless thighs work but they cook faster, so read the tip below. Leave the skin on the sweet potato: it holds the chunks together and it goes crisp where it touches the tin.

• 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1.2kg)
• 600g sweet potato, scrubbed and cut into 3cm chunks, skin on
• 2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into chunky pieces
• 2 red onions, peeled and cut into thick wedges
• 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled and lightly smashed
• 2 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp dried thyme, or 5 or 6 fresh sprigs
• Salt and black pepper
• 6 tbsp Full Feast BBQ Sauce (4 for the chicken, 2 for the glaze)
• 1 lime
• 3 spring onions, finely sliced, to finish

How I make it

1. Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, gas 6). Take out your biggest roasting tin. The vegetables need to sit in one layer with a little space, or they steam instead of roasting.
2. Put the sweet potato, peppers, red onion and garlic cloves in the tin. Pour over 1½ tablespoons of the oil, then the allspice, the thyme, a good pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper. Toss it all with your hands until every piece is coated, then spread it out flat.
3. Pat the chicken thighs dry with kitchen paper. Dry skin goes crisp, wet skin goes grey. Rub them with the last half tablespoon of oil and season with salt and pepper.
4. Now take 4 tablespoons of the BBQ Sauce and massage it into the thighs, over the skin and under it where you can. Do not rush this part. The sauce needs to be in the meat, not sitting on top of it.
5. Lay the thighs skin side up on the vegetables, spaced out so the hot air can get round each one. Into the oven for 25 minutes.
6. Take the tin out. Lift the thighs onto a plate for one minute, turn the vegetables over in the juices, then put the chicken back. Brush the remaining 2 tablespoons of BBQ Sauce over the skin and squeeze half the lime over the vegetables.
7. Back in the oven for 15 minutes more. The skin should be dark gold and sticky, the sweet potato soft when you press it, and the onion catching brown at the edges.
8. Check the chicken is done: push a thermometer into the thickest part next to the bone and you want 75°C, or cut in and the juices run clear with no pink. If it needs longer, give it 5 more minutes.
9. Leave the tin to rest for 5 minutes. The juices settle and the glaze thickens as it cools a little.
10. Scatter over the spring onions, squeeze the other half of the lime over everything and carry the tin to the table. Nobody needs a serving dish on a Tuesday.

The role of BBQ Sauce in this dish

My BBQ Sauce is built on tomato purée, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, a little rum and garlic, with English mustard behind it. In a traybake that mix does two jobs. The sugar and the tomato take the heat of the oven and turn into a dark glaze on the chicken skin, the kind you want to pick at with your fingers before anyone sits down. The vinegar and the mustard stop it being sweet for the sake of sweet, so the chicken tastes of chicken and not of pudding.

The trick is the two coats. The first lot goes on raw and cooks into the meat. If you put all six tablespoons on at the start, the sugar burns before the chicken is cooked. The second coat goes on with fifteen minutes to go and that is the one you see, glossy and dark. The juices that run down into the sweet potato carry the rum and the garlic with them, so the vegetables underneath end up tasting of the sauce without a single extra step. There is no chilli in this sauce, so the heat you taste is the allspice and the black pepper, warm rather than sharp.

Tips from my kitchen

• Give the tin room. If your roasting tin is small, use two. Crowded vegetables sit in their own steam and never brown. This is the single thing that separates a good traybake from a soggy one.
• Boneless thighs? Cut the first roast to 15 minutes, glaze, then 10 to 12 minutes more. Check for 75°C at the thickest part the same way.
• Make it hotter. Swap the BBQ Sauce for my Flaming BBQ Sauce, which is the same sauce with real chilli in it. Same method, same timings, more fire.
• Same glaze trick, different cut. This two-coat method is exactly how I do my Caribbean BBQ pork chops. First coat before the heat, second coat near the end. Once you have it, you have it for life.
• Taste the vegetables before you salt at the table. The sauce brings some salt with it and the sweet potato soaks up the juices. Season the tin with a light hand at the start and finish at the table.

What to serve it with

On a Tuesday, honestly, nothing. There is sweet potato in the tin and that is your carbohydrate. Put the tin in the middle of the table with a spoon and let people fight over the onion.

When I have ten more minutes I make a bowl of my Caribbean coleslaw, because the cold crunch and the herbs cut straight through the sticky chicken. On a Sunday, when there is more time and more people, this chicken goes on top of a pot of rice and peas and the tin juices get spooned over the rice. And when the sun comes out again next summer, take the same thighs and the same sauce outside and cook my Caribbean BBQ chicken on the grill. Same flavour, different season.

Chicken traybake questions I get asked

How long to cook a chicken traybake?

Bone-in chicken thighs need about 40 minutes at 200°C (180°C fan): 25 minutes, glaze, then 15 more. Boneless thighs take 25 to 30 minutes in total. Whatever the cut, the oven is not the judge, the thermometer is. You want 75°C at the thickest part, or clear juices with no pink when you cut in close to the bone. If the vegetables are done before the chicken, lift the chicken onto a plate, give the vegetables a stir and put the chicken back on top.

Can you put raw chicken in a traybake?

Yes, that is the whole point of a traybake. The raw chicken goes straight in with the raw vegetables and everything cooks together. Two things keep it safe and good: give everything space in the tin so the heat reaches all of it, and check the chicken reaches 75°C before you serve. Do not let raw chicken juices touch anything you are going to eat cold, like the coleslaw, and wash your hands and the board after you handle it.

Can you reheat chicken traybake?

You can, once. Cool the leftovers within a couple of hours, keep them covered in the fridge and eat them within two days. Reheat in the oven at 180°C for about 20 minutes or in the microwave until the chicken is steaming hot right through, not just warm on the outside. I reheat the vegetables in a frying pan with a splash of water and the chicken in the oven, so the skin comes back a little rather than going soft.

Can you freeze chicken traybake?

Yes. Pull the meat off the bones once it has cooled, pack it with the vegetables and the juices in a freezer box and it keeps for three months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and reheat until steaming hot. The sweet potato goes softer after freezing, so I mash it into the juices and call it a sauce. The onion and pepper hold up well.

What is in this chicken traybake that people might be allergic to?

The dish itself is chicken, vegetables, oil, spices and lime, with no dairy, nuts or eggs. All of my sauces are lab tested gluten free, so this traybake is gluten free as written. Two things to say plainly for anyone with allergies: the BBQ Sauce is lab tested gluten free, but its English mustard is made with wheat, so it is not for anyone with a wheat allergy, and it contains mustard and sulphites from the balsamic vinegar. Check the label before you cook for a guest.

Final word from me

This is not a show-off recipe. It is the one I make when the day has been long and the people in my house are hungry now. Chicken, sweet potato, a jar of sauce and forty minutes of doing something else while the oven works. If you make it, make it on a weeknight, and put the tin straight on the table. My mother would approve of that part.

JP