A lighter way to cook roast chicken, this one pot pepper and olive chicken is full of robust, rustic Mediterranean inspired flavours. It just cooks away while you do things you’d rather do, like maybe drink wine.

ALL the ingredients for this recipe are now available at your local Ritchies supermarket. Find your local VIC, NSW or QLD store.

one pot pepper and olive chicken

• 1 Ritchies twin pack small whole chickens
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large red onion, cut in wedges
• 1 pack traffic light (red, green, yellow) capsicums
• 10 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
• 3 tablespoons fresh oregano, roughly chopped or 3 teaspoons dried oregano
• 3 medium cloves garlic, sliced
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2-3 cups low salt chicken stock
• ½ cup pitted kalamata olives

to serve

• a few oregano and thyme leaves

one pot pepper and olive chicken method

Preheat oven to 200^oC.

Using a sharp large knife, cut each chicken in half starting one side of the back bone (just to one side of the tail) and then open up the bird and cut along the breastbone. Place the halved chickens, cut side down in a deep roasting pan that just fits them, rub them all over with half the olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for half an hour in the oven at 200^oC, then turn the oven down down to 180^oC.

While the chicken cooks, deseed the capsicums and cut them into strips. After half an hour, remove the chickens from the oven, lift them and add the onion wedges, pepper strips and half the herbs to the bottom of the pan, then drizzle with the remaining olive oil. Place the chicken on top and return to the oven for 20 minutes or so until the capsicums and onions have started to collapse and colour. Pour chicken stock into the roasting pan, you need around 1.5cm of stock in the bottom of the pan. Scatter the top of the chickens with the remaining herbs and the sliced garlic. Return to the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes or so until the chicken is golden and cooked through and the vegetables are very soft. Just before serving scatter the olives into the pan and cook for about 5 minutes or until the olives are heated though.

Serve the one pot chicken straight from the pan to the plate, with warm crusty bread to sop up the pan juices and a fresh salad.

Serves 4. Preparation time 15 minutes. Cooking time 1 hour and 15 minutes.