Whenever anyone asks me what my go-to dish is, the answer is always a one-pan wonder.

One-pan wonders are pretty effortless, they result in less dishes to clean after cooking, and they’re incredibly tasty due to all the ingredients infusing their individual flavours into one scrumptious dish.

I always do my one-pan wonders in my big electric frying pan, but if you’ve got a large, deep saucepan, you’re good to go!

Who’s hungry? Vincent and I, and our housemate Roan, too. However this recipe will easily feed a hungry family of 4.

Ingredients

• 4 chicken thighs
• 4 chicken drumsticks
• 1 onion, diced
• 200 g diced bacon
• 4 potatoes, quartered
• 150 g sliced mushrooms
• 4 tomatoes, quartered
• 5 baby marrows, sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 50 ml Worcester sauce
• 1 can tomato & onion mix
• 30 ml coconut oil
• 100 ml water
• 1 sachet tomato paste
• 15 ml chicken spice
• 15 ml chilli flakes in olive oil (just the oil)
• 30 ml Mediterranean dry rub
• 10 ml truffle salt
• 10 ml ground black pepper
• 2 cups couscous to serve

Work wonders

Fry the onion in 10 ml coconut oil over low heat.

In the meantime, spice your chicken pieces with the chilli flake oil, chicken spice, Mediterranean spice, a sprinkle of truffle salt and black pepper.

Mix very well, then add the Worcester sauce and give it another quick mix.

Add the bacon to the onions and turn the heat up slightly.

Once the bacon starts to cook a little, move the onions and bacon to the sides of the pan and add your chicken pieces in the middle. Add the rest of the coconut oil for the browning process.

Brown the chicken for 10 minutes in total (5 minutes per side). Once you’ve turned the chicken pieces over to brown the other side, also add the bell peppers and potatoes to the sides of the pan.

Now add the tomatoes on top and cover the pan for 5 minutes. Keep the heat low — it should gently sizzle.

Flip each chicken piece over. Add the canned tomatoes and onions, as well as the tomato paste on top of the chicken, and cover the pan for 10 minutes.

Stir everything together for the first time, mixing carefully. Add the water to ensure the potatoes are pretty much covered in liquid. Then add the mushrooms and courgettes on top. Add salt and pepper, too.

Give it all a good stir once more, then pop the lid on for 20 minutes.

Open her up and stir well — the dish will still be very watery at this point, which is fine. Then pop the lid back on for another 20 minutes. Add some more salt and pepper as needed.

Let simmer without the lid for 5 to 10 minutes to thicken the sauce. Stir occasionally to release some steam.

Dish up and dig in

By now your sauce has thickened, the potatoes are cooked and the chicken is barely holding onto the bones — which means it’s dinner time!

Hopefully you’ve made something starchy to accompany your dish, too. I made couscous for the guys, and added some extra love to their plates.