It can be difficult to decide what to make for dinner, as many recipes that promise to be ‘quick and easy’ are overcomplicated with a long list of ingredients. I am often very reluctant to try out anything by celebrity chefs, as I do not want to spend hours on a weekday evening cooking dinner using fancy ingredients that cost too much.
However, after flicking through one of her ‘Foolproof Dinners’ cookbook, I discovered that Mary Berry’s dinner recipes seemed quite simple while still looking incredibly tasty. I decided to try out her honey mustard chicken bake and was surprised that it actually only cost me £3 for the whole dinner, as many of the ingredients are everyday kitchen items that I already had in the cupboard. This traybake came out beautifully with crispy chicken and perfectly golden potatoes, but best of all, it actually delivered on being “quick and easy” as it only took me around 10 minutes to prepare before it went in the oven.
I only had to buy the potatoes and chicken legs for this dinner, as I already had everything for the glaze in my kitchen. I bought baby new potatoes so I did not have to chop them up and bought chicken drum fillets as my supermarket had run out of drumsticks.
To begin, I preheated the oven to 200°C and lined a tray with baking paper.
I made the glaze in a small bowl by mixing together the grainy mustard, tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and honey. I then chopped up the garlic and added that to the glaze as well.
Next, I carefully placed the chicken legs in the baking tray and scored their skins a little. I then poured the glaze over the chicken and used a spoon to help coat them completely.
To make the potatoes, I simply put them in a bowl, added the olive oil and then seasoned with salt and pepper. I tossed the potatoes until each one was covered in the oil and placed them in the baking tray as well.
Overall, preparing the chicken and potatoes was really easy and took about 10 minutes. I then placed the baking tray in the oven and let it cook for 40 minutes.
When the cooking time was up, I took the tray out and gently spooned any leftover glaze onto the potatoes, then placed back in the oven. I cooked for a further five minutes until I saw the potatoes were getting crispy.
The honey mustard chicken and well-seasoned potatoes were then ready to eat. I served them with some broccoli and carrots I had in the fridge and steamed them for five minutes.
This was a really simple dinner to make, and it tasted incredible. For only £3, I will definitely be making it again in the future.
