Baked Chicken & Summer Vegetable Casserole

70 min · Easy · Serves 1

550 kcal per serving · 41g protein

Gyuvech is the Bulgarian answer to a traybake: potatoes, aubergine, courgette, pepper, green beans and tomatoes baked slowly with chicken, paprika and savory until everything is soft and the top has caught. It starts under foil so the vegetables stew in their own juices, then finishes uncovered to brown. Five different vegetables in one dish, and the oven does all of the work.

Ingredients

• 120 g Potatoes, in 2 cm cubes
• Aubergine, in 2 cm cubes × 1
• Courgette, in 2 cm chunks × 1
• Bell pepper, in 2 cm pieces × 1
• 60 g Green beans, cut in 3 cm lengths
• Onion, roughly chopped × 1
• 1 clove Garlic clove, sliced
• 1 tbsp Sunflower oil
• 1 tsp Sweet paprika
• 0.5 tsp Chubritsa (dried savory)
• 3 g Salt
• 0.5 g Black pepper
• 150 g Chopped canned tomatoes
• 160 g Boneless skinless chicken thighs, in large pieces
• 6 g Fresh parsley, chopped

Method

1. Season the vegetables

   

   Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan). In a deep baking dish, toss the potato cubes, aubergine cubes, courgette chunks, bell pepper pieces, green beans, chopped onion and sliced garlic with the sunflower oil, paprika, chubritsa, two-thirds of the salt and the black pepper.

2. Add the tomatoes and chicken

   

   Stir in the chopped tomatoes and 80 ml hot water, season the chicken thigh pieces with the remaining salt and push the chicken down among the vegetables.

3. Bake under foil

   

   Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes, until the vegetables have released their juices and the potato cubes are starting to soften.

4. Uncover and brown

   

   Remove the foil, stir gently and bake for 20 minutes more, until the potato cubes are tender, the juices have thickened and the top is browned in patches.

5. Rest and scatter parsley

   

   Rest the casserole for 5 minutes, then scatter with the chopped parsley and serve from the dish.