Roasted vegetable sauce with pan-fried chicken, rice and broccolini – an easy, healthy dinner.
Pan-fried chicken with roasted vegetable sauce and rice – an easy, delicious dish with juicy chicken, rice, crisp broccolini and the most wonderful creamy sauce made from oven-roasted vegetables. A truly nourishing dinner with plenty of flavour, where it is the roasted vegetable sauce in particular that makes all the difference.
I love making sauces from roasted vegetables. When the vegetables are allowed to roast in the oven, they develop a lovely sweetness and plenty of flavour, and once they are blended you get the richest, creamiest sauce – with no cream at all.
For this vegetable sauce I use peppers, carrots, onions, garlic, cherry tomatoes and a little fresh chilli. The vegetables are tossed with olive oil, rosemary, salt and freshly ground pepper before going into the oven until they are beautifully tender and have taken on a little colour. The chilli gives the sauce a pleasant warmth, but do taste it before you add it, so you can adjust the heat to your own liking.
While the vegetables look after themselves in the oven, I prepare the chicken and broccolini and put the rice on. I slice the chicken breasts horizontally, which gives me flatter fillets that are easy to fry evenly in the pan. The chicken is seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper and fried in a little oil until golden and juicy. Once the chicken is done, I set it aside and flash-fry the broccolini in the same pan.
Once the vegetables are roasted, I blend them with stock into a smooth, creamy vegetable sauce. I season with freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt and freshly ground pepper and adjust the consistency with a little extra stock until the sauce is exactly as I want it. The lemon adds a freshness that pairs perfectly with the sweet roasted vegetables.
I serve the dish with boiled rice, the fried chicken cut into slices and a generous helping of the creamy vegetable sauce over the top. The flash-fried broccolini goes on the side, where it provides a fresh, crisp contrast to the smooth sauce.
A really easy and delicious chicken dish with rice and vegetables that is both filling and full of flavour. The roasted vegetable sauce is packed with taste and a great way to get plenty of vegetables into dinner. And it is simply a pleasure that the oven does so much of the work.
Pan-fried chicken with roasted vegetable sauce and rice
Ingredients
Roasted vegetable sauce
- 3 red peppers
- 150 g carrots
- 2 onions
- 4 cloves garlic
- 300 g cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 fresh chilli, adjust the heat to taste
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp rosemary
- 1 tsp thyme
- 150-200 ml chicken stock
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Chicken
- 2 chicken breast fillets
- Olive oil
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Other spices (optional)
To serve
- 200 g broccolini
- 300 g rice
Method
- Wash and prepare all the vegetables for the sauce. Halve the peppers and remove the seeds, cut the carrots into smaller slices, halve the onions and remove the skins, and cut the base off the garlic cloves but leave the skins on.
- Spread the peppers, carrots, onions, garlic, tomatoes and chilli on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle the oil over the top and season with the herbs, salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Roast the vegetables in a preheated oven at 220°C, conventional (top and bottom heat), for approx. 30-35 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the rice as directed on the packet and leave it to rest in the pan.
- Wash the broccolini and split the stems in half lengthways if they are very thick. Set aside.
- Slice the chicken breast fillets horizontally (parallel to the board) into two thinner pieces – so you have 4 flat fillets. Season with salt, freshly ground pepper and, if you like, a few other spices such as paprika.
- Heat a splash of oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken over medium heat until golden on both sides and cooked through in the middle.
- Tip the vegetables into a blender along with the hot stock and blend until smooth. Season with freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt and freshly ground pepper and adjust the consistency with more stock if needed.
- Set the chicken aside on a chopping board and fry the broccolini in the same pan for a couple of minutes over a high heat. Set them aside as well.
- Slice the chicken and serve with the cooked rice, topped with the vegetable sauce and the fried broccolini.
Nutrition
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