Vanlife Roast Dinner

Sundays are our favourite day in the van. Slow mornings, a long walk with the dog and a van-cooked roast, what more could you want? We have purchased an electric oven for our van as, if you have ever tried to cook in a campervan gas oven, you will know they have the cooking power of a hairdryer. Our simple take on a roast cuts the cooking time and uses clever shortcuts to make life as easy as possible

Recipe

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 4 Small Chicken Thighs
• 4 Carrots, peeled and halved lengthways
• 540g Tin of Potatoes
• 4 Tenderstem Broccoli Spears
• 40g Stuffing Mix, made up with water.
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Gravy (we use the pots but granules are fine)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and place into a roasting tin at the top of the oven.
2. Place the carrots on a baking tray drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper and put them into the oven below the chicken. Roast for around 45-55 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the carrots are tender.
3. Whilst the chicken is roasting, boil the broccoli spears until tender, remove from the pan and retain the water.
4. Drain the chicken juices into the broccoli water and set aside for making the gravy later.
5. Turn the oven up to 200C. Drain your tinned potatoes well and add them to the tray with the chicken. Add dollops of your stuffing mixture to the tray with the carrots and continue to roast everything for 20 minutes. You can pop the broccoli on the carrot tray for the last 5 minutes if it needs reheating.
6. Bring the broccoli water and chicken juices to the boil with your gravy stock pot or granules added and bubble until thickened.
7. Your potatoes should be golden brown and everything is ready to serve.

Tips & Tricks

Tricks:

• Tinned potatoes are a quick solution here but by all means use fresh spuds if you want to. You will need to par boil them and roast for a longer time though.

Tips:

• Feel free to use whatever veg you prefer but choose one to boil and one to roast to make the logistics easier.
• You could also do this with a small roasting joint, just look for something with a similar cook time.