Greek Lemon Chicken Traybake with Potatoes and Olives
One tray, one hour, mostly unattended. The potatoes go in twenty minutes before the chicken, which is the only way both are done at once.
Ingredients
- 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (about 800g)
- 800g new potatoes, halved
- 2 red onions, cut into wedges
- 1 red pepper, cut into strips
- 100g kalamata olives
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2 lemons
- 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- For the tzatziki: 200g Greek yogurt, half a cucumber, grated and squeezed, a small handful of dill, and a little of the crushed garlic
Method
- Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan). In a bowl, mix the garlic, oregano, the zest and juice of one lemon, 2 tbsp of the oil, and salt and pepper. Toss the chicken in half of it and leave it while the potatoes start.
- Toss the potatoes and onions in the remaining oil and marinade, spread them in a large roasting tin in one layer, and roast for 20 minutes on their own. Potatoes need about twice as long as thighs; put them in together and you choose between raw potatoes and dry chicken.
- Add the chicken, the pepper and the second lemon cut into quarters, nestling the chicken between the potatoes rather than on top of them. Roast for another 25 minutes, until the chicken reaches 75C in the thickest part and the potatoes are golden. Scatter over the olives for the last five minutes.
- While it roasts, make the tzatziki: squeeze the grated cucumber hard in your hands before stirring it into the yogurt with the dill, a little garlic and salt. Unsqueezed cucumber turns it watery within minutes.
- Squeeze the roasted lemon quarters over the tray and serve with the tzatziki.
Why it works
A traybake is the most forgiving way to feed four people well on a weeknight: one tin, fifteen minutes of work, and a portion with nearly 50g of protein.
Thighs are chosen over breasts deliberately. They have a little more fat, which keeps them juicy through a long roast, and more of the zinc and iron found in darker meat. Chicken is the site's most practical everyday protein, and a portion here covers most of the day's needs in one meal.
That protein is the point for both audiences. For men, muscle is one of the few things that reliably moves with training and diet together: does testosterone build muscle. For women after menopause, muscle loss accelerates as oestrogen falls, and strength training only builds muscle when protein supports it: strength training in midlife.
The fat is mostly the right kind. Extra-virgin olive oil and olives are central to the Mediterranean pattern with the strongest evidence for heart health, which matters after menopause, when heart disease risk starts to catch up with men's.
The honest note is the potatoes. They are why this is not tagged for blood sugar: new potatoes raise blood glucose faster than beans or lentils. Eating them with protein, fat and the skins on softens that, and the tzatziki helps, but if blood sugar is your priority, use half the potatoes and add a tin of chickpeas to the tray for the last 20 minutes.
For another one-pot chicken dinner, see the chicken, butter bean and kale pot.
