The One-Pan Dinner That Got Us Through This Week

Some weeks you plan the funny story in advance. You save the ridiculous moments as they happen, the way you'd put milk bottle lids in a recycling jar, and by the time you sit down to write the newsletter there's a jar full of them to tip out.

This was not that kind of week.

It's been a big fortnight here, busy in the good way and hard in a few other ways, and by Wednesday night I had exactly one working idea left in my head, which was: dinner needs to happen, and it needs to happen without me expending any energy I did not have. There wasn't much left and it was only Wednesday.

So I made this. One tray, one saucepan, less than twenty minutes of actual attention required. It uses asparagus, which is properly in season right now and cheap for it, and it disappears off plates faster than almost anything else I cook for the senior recipe tester and the accompanying junior recipe testers.

I'm not going to pretend this recipe fixed the week. It didn't. But it really just needed to be dinner, on the table, without costing me anything I didn't have left to give. Some nights that's the whole job.

Lemon & Herb Chicken Traybake with roast asparagus and risoni

Serves 4 · 35 minutes · Baking dish, saucepan

Ingredients

• 4–8 chicken thigh fillets (depending on size). You can also use thigh cutlets (which still have the bone in: these will take a little longer to cook)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1–2 bunches asparagus, woody ends snapped off, cut into thirds (or kept whole, see picture)
• 500g risoni
• 1.5L chicken stock
• 120g baby spinach
• 60g fetta, crumbled
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Mix oil, garlic, lemon zest and juice, oregano, salt and pepper in a baking dish. Toss the chicken through to coat, and let it sit for 5–10 minutes. (Letting it sit was the step I invented when my addled brain got distracted and I walked away. By the time I remembered I was supposed to be cooking dinner, the chicken was better for it.)
2. Put the baking dish in the hot oven for 20–22 minutes, until golden and cooked through.
3. Meanwhile, cook the risoni in the stock per packet instructions (about 10-12 minutes), stirring occasionally.
4. Add the asparagus to the tray for the final 5 minutes of cooking, tossing it through the pan juices.
5. Once the risoni is cooked, drain off the chicken stock so there's only around ¼ cup remaining.
6. Stir the spinach through the hot risoni until wilted. Season to taste.
7. Serve risoni onto plates, top with chicken and asparagus, and scatter with fetta.

Tip: extra risoni and chicken keeps well for lunch. A squeeze of lemon and a tiny drizzle of olive oil brings it straight back to life.

Get the shopping list: tap to search each item at Woolworths or Coles → 

Every meal we deliver helps us cook for a family living with disability. If tonight's traybake happens to feed you as well as us, that's the whole point.