Roasted Chicken and Butternut Squash - Recipe

Roasted Butternut Squash

The butternut squash is a very versatile vegetable that can be used in numerous ways such as in a creamy soup or in a nice steamy Moroccan tagine or simply roasted in the oven and served as a side dish for the Sunday roast.

I was, however, a late starter with this vegetable and did not use it in my recipes until a few years ago. It was not a vegetable that my family used to use in our cooking and whenever I saw it in the supermarket, I would often wonder how the taste and texture would be, since I pictured it to be very similar to a pumpkin. Once I started to cook butternut squash and introduced it to my daily cooking I was pleasantly surprised how rich and tasty the warming flavors were, especially when roasted in the oven.

Therefore, I often use it as a complementary vegetable when roasting chicken cut into pieces.This dish is healthy and can be made without the chicken as a vegetarian meal and served with rise. It is as many other of my meals simple to make and does not require a lot of preparation  To vary this dish, I use whatever vegetables that are in for the season and different spices. The following recipe is very much inspired by Moroccan food and I have used their famous spice mix, Ras el Hanout as a change to the traditionally used thyme and rosemary when roasting chicken or vegetables. I love using those herbs but thought that I wanted to give the ras el hanout a try when roasting as opposed to using it only in stews and tagines. I loved the warm and spicy flavors which give a nice, fragrant aroma in the whole house, as if you were walking in the middle of a spice market..

Homemade olive oil with chillies

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:
1 small chicken, cut into pieces
1/2 butternut squash
3 potatoes
2 carrots
2 onions
1 paprika
1 squash
chilli olive oil

Spices: salt and pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder, 2 tsp Ras el Hanout mix


Method:

1- Wash the chicken pieces and make sure they are coated with salt and pepper. Place them in a roasting tin.

2- Wash and peel all the vegetables and cute down to bite size. Salt and pepper the vegetables and place them on top of the chicken pieces in the roasting thin and spread them evenly.

3- Drizzle chilli olive oil over the chicken and vegetables and make sure they are well coated and finish off by sprinkling garlic powder and ras el hanout mix on top. Roast in the oven for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven, 200 C. If you like more broth add half a glass of water. Serve with Basmati Rise.

Enjoy!