MTT: Italian Roasted Chicken With Asparagus and Goat’s Cheese

It’s summertime! OK, it’s totally not summertime. But I have had Pimms twice, this week we got through two punnets of strawberries and last weekend I sat by the Thames with bare arms. Warmer times are upon us my friends and I for one could not be more bloody ecstatic about it; the sun on my face, the car windows open, mornings in the garden, the smell of suncream. I love it ALL. So this week I happily planned  a BBQ. There were going to be chicken drumsticks, homemade burgers, lamb and mint koftes. Even more Pimms, kids playing happily in the garden. It would have been the perfect opportunity to try out the new OXO Shake & Flavour that I was sent this week: I was desperate to get my grill on. Instead we had torrential rain followed by hail and thunder and then oh yeah more torrential rain.  So we were indeed playing in the garden but it was the age-old game of puddle jumping. Peppa Pig has a lot to answer for. I was totally distraught about having to re-think my BBQ and so when it came to making decisions about dinner time yesterday I spent my late afternoon poking around in the fridge sighing dramatically. I came up with a chicken breast and a few leftover packets of veg and – ta daa! – had one of those cookery lightbulb moments. I returned to a gorgeous blog I discovered this week, Well Worn Whisk (I’m sooo jealous of the beautiful photography!) and a recipe for Italian Baked Chicken that originated in the new Mumsnet cookbook. It looked like summer on a plate and was the next best thing to a BBQ. As a singleton I like recipes that can be scaled up or down to one Bridget Jones-esque portion and this was perfect for that, plus it was a traybake  so there were no saucepans to be scoured. SCORE. I mixed things up a bit: the recipe called for spinach but I added a handful of kale because, you know, superfoods and all that business. I didn’t have any mozzarella, I didn’t have any in the fridge, so substituted in goat’s cheese, plus I could eat goats cheese on top of a piece of paper and be happy. I also used OXO Garlic and Herb Shake & Flavour as this is the kind of recipe I’d use fresh garlic but after a day of stropping over my non-existent BBQ I couldn’t face the garlic crusher. This dinner turned out to be a dream. It took 5 minutes to prepare, 20 to cook and thanks to the garlic and herb seasoning and goat’s cheese it was really full of flavour. Plus it totally fits my version of paleo! A great supper for those tired evenings when you just can’t face that garlic crusher. The only downside is that it really doesn’t photograph well. This is one of the occasions we need scratch n’sniff computer screens. Huge thank-you to Rachel at Well Worn Whisk for bringing this lovely recipe to my attention and OXO for sending over a goody bag of flavours! 

This post is part of a BritMums project with OXO Shake & Flavour. Shake & Flavour seasoning granules can be sprinkled into food during cooking or before serving. Find out more about the Shake & Flavour varieties.