Healthy Roast Chicken Dinner

A proper roast dinner on a Sunday is oh so very English and traditional. But I was reading a newspaper recently and hear that its popularity is on the wane. This not only surprises, but disappoints me and I am a huge fan of tradition and when I was a child - it wasn't a Sunday without a roast.

The three main reasons why they seem to be less popular are three myths. One, they take too long to make. Two, they are unhealthy and three, they are expensive. Now I am putting up this blog to prove that doesn't have to be the case! This delicious chicken roast took 45 minutes to cook in total including the preparation, the washing up was minimal and it is healthy! You don't NEED to have loads of goose fat on the potatoes and you don't need to struggle with a huge joint of pork or a large chicken. You can follow this recipe and enjoy without the guilt. The dinner per serving costs under £3.50 per person. And its STILL delicious.

Ingredients:                 (Serves 2)

2 skinless chicken breasts
3 large potatoes
50g Paxo stuffing Mix
2-3 carrots, sliced
100g green beans, halved
large handful frozen peas
pack of ready made frozen Yorkshire puddings
1 cube chicken stock
60g (approx.) bisto gravy granules

Method:

Set the oven to 200 C. Then peel the potatoes and cut into quarters. Par boil in a saucepan for about 5 minutes (until the very outer layer begins to cook). Drain the water, put the lid on the pan and shake the pan to fluff up the edges of the potatoes (this will make them crispier). Tip onto a baking sheet and drizzle very lightly with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Pop in the oven for 35-40 minutes. You can make the rest of the dinner while these are cooking.

Boil a kettle of water and crumble the stock cube in a jug. Add about 1 pint of water and stir. While it is still hot add enough bisto granules to get to the thickness you like. Cover with cling film and set aside. You can microwave to heat up when you are serving.
Put the stuffing mix into a small ovenproof dish and add enough water to make a firm but not dry stuffing. Put the chicken breasts in a separate small ovenproof dish and drizzle with scant olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Put both the chicken and the stuffing on a shelf under the potatoes in the oven for 25 minutes.

Get a medium saucepan and put the carrots in water. Put the green veg into a little steamer. The carrots take about 20 minutes to boil and the greens over the top of the carrots for about 10 minutes. (Of you don't have a steamer - just add the green veg to the carrots.)

When the potatoes are ready, take everything out of the oven and put a couple of Yorkshire frozen pudding directly on the rack. Turn the oven off - the heat will be enough to heat up the puddings.

Now you can serve. Pop the gravy in the microwave for a minute or two and grab the plates. Enjoy!!

Note: Yes I know there are a lot of cheats in this - and you can adapt if you want to make your own Yorkshire puddings, gravy or stuffing. I will put up another blog soon for that. But this is THE easiest way to make a roast and still impress the family and enjoy without much work. Happy Sundays!