Lebanese Inspired Traybake
Lebanese Inspired Traybake was inspired by my niece and nephew’s love for Zatar. I devised an easy traybake with everything you would make for a BBQ. I served this on a drizzly day and when my husband walked in he thought that we were having a BBQ. I like to prepare the chicken or vegetables like butternut a day in advance and on the day all you need to do is peel potatoes, sweet potatoes and chop a cauliflower. For vegans add a mix of vegetables up to 1.5kg’s of the chicken’s weight in the recipe.
The flavour of the traybake is quite earthy the combination of the herbs in the Za’atar which are usually thyme, marjoram and oregano, balance well with the spices of the Ras El Hanout which usually contains black pepper, ginger, smoked paprika, all spice, cardamon, mace, nutmeg, turmeric, clove cayenne and rose petals. If you are serving children who aren’t accustomed to these herbs and spices you could ease them into my delicious sugar and spice oven baked bbq chicken wings recipe recipe first.
Although I have added 75g of brown sugar the end product is not sweet, the sugar allows all the spices to mingle together and coat the chicken well. I did toy with the idea of drizzling a little honey at the end for a sweeter dish, but my boys were happy with the dinner as it was.
I can’t eat without a dipping sauce so I served the Lebanese Tray Bake with a quick to mix together Tahini Sauce and it worked well with the potatoes, sweet potato and cauliflower that I chopped at the bottom of the tray.
- 75g Billington’s Light Muscovado Sugar
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon za'atar
- 1 tablespoon Ras el Hanout
- 1.2kg chicken pieces washed and cleaned
- or for vegans add a mix of vegetables up to 1.2kg's
- Optional
- 2 potatoes cut into wedges and parboiled
- 2 sweet potatoes cut into wedges and parboiled
- ½ head of cauliflower, cut into small florets
- 4 corn on the cob (boiled)
- Or any vegetables that you enjoy roasted
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
- Mix and marinate the chicken or the vegan option of butternut, aubergine for a day or a couple of hours. If you are pushed for time you can cook them straight away.
- Add the vegetables onto the bottom of a roasting dish top with the chicken if using and cook for
- mins-1 hour until the chicken and vegetables are cooked through.
- Remove the chicken and grill the vegetables for a few minutes or until golden in colour.
Only marinade harder vegetables overnight.
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 1 Tablespoon tahini paste
- splash of milk to thin if needed
- Optional Additions
- 1 small garlic clove, crushed
- a handful of chopped parsley
- Mix all the ingredients together.
- If the sauce is very thick add a splash of milk to reach a pouring or dolloping consistency.