Nigella Lawson's chicken traybake with bitter orange and fennel, from her book Simply Nigella, is the recipe she has "cooked too often to count" for weeknight meals. The dish features chicken thighs marinated in orange, fennel seed, and mustard, roasted over wedges of fennel until bronzed, with a syrupy pan sauce.
The Traybake She Keeps Coming Back To
Lawson has made this traybake more times than she can count since settling into her kitchen, finding its repetition comforting. As it cooks, it fills the kitchen with a gentle anise and citrus scent, working as well in autumn and winter as in summer.
Traybakes are a quick and easy all-in-one dinner for busy weeknights and lazy weekends. Lawson has a wide variety of traybake recipes, but this chicken version is the one she keeps returning to.
Marinating for Deep Flavour
Marinating is what builds the deep flavour and gives the dish its lovely natural "gravy". Lawson always gets the chicken into its marinade a day ahead so the orange, fennel seed, mustard, and oil penetrate the meat properly, seasoning it right through rather than just coating the surface.
If you're short on time, she says an hour will do; leave it out of the fridge in a cool place, as long as you start with good chicken. Her clever bag trick, marinating in a sealed freezer bag, means the small amount of marinade coats everything well.
What to Serve With This Traybake
It's a complete one-tray main meal, but something to soak up that glorious syrupy sauce is welcome. You can serve this recipe with some mashed or roasted potatoes, rice, or crusty bread.
A sharp green salad or some greens balances the richness. The soft fennel means you barely need another vegetable.
How to Make Nigella Lawson's Chicken Traybake
Ingredients (serves six)
- Two large fennel bulbs
- 100ml of cold-pressed rapeseed oil (or extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling on the chicken when cooking)
- Two oranges, zested and juiced
- Two teaspoons of Maldon sea salt flakes
- Four teaspoons of fennel seeds
- Four teaspoons of Dijon mustard
- 12 chicken thighs, with skin on and bone in
Method
Start by removing the fronds (leaves) and keep them in the fridge in a resealable bag for serving. Cut the bulbs into quarters, then each quarter lengthwise into three. Set aside.
To make the marinade, place a large freezer bag inside a wide-necked jug. Pour in the oil, add the orange zest and juice, and add the salt, fennel seeds, and mustard. Stir briefly.
Add a quarter of the chicken, then a quarter of the fennel, and repeat until used up. Seal tightly, lay the bag in a dish, and squelch it so the small amount of marinade coats as much chicken as possible. Leave the chicken to marinate for an hour, but ideally overnight.
Let the chicken in the bag come to room temperature for 30 minutes before you tip the contents into a large shallow roasting tin. Arrange the chicken skin-side up on top of the fennel.
In the meantime, preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas Mark 6. Drizzle more oil on the chicken and roast for one hour until the fennel is soft and the chicken is cooked through and bronzed.
To make the sauce, lift the chicken and fennel onto a warmed plate. Put the tin over medium heat, or tip juices into a saucepan, and boil the juices, stirring, until syrupy – about one and a half to two minutes in the tin or five minutes in a saucepan. To serve, pour the sauce over and tear the reserved fennel fronds on top.
