The Quickest Sunday Roast

Growing up we had a roast lunch every Sunday, which was essentially a full-blown Thanksgiving dinner once a week. Roast chicken and potatoes, peas, broccoli, carrots, bread sauce, gravy. The works. Which also meant that my mom was in the kitchen all of Sunday morning, then cleaning up for most of the afternoon.

As an adult I miss a good roast, and while fully capable of cooking one I have many more things to do on Sunday than spend the whole day cooking. So, here is my simple yet still satisfying quick version of my childhood Sundays that comes together in about 40 minutes.

• 4 skin-on chicken thighs
• Fresh rosemary
• 2 T room temperature butter
• Salt and pepper
• 2 large potatoes
• 2 T sour cream or Greek yogurt
• 1 T milk
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cups frozen peas
• 2 T butter
• 2 T flour
• 4 cups chicken stock

Preheat oven to 400*.

Place chicken thighs on a baking dish. Rub the skin with the room temperature butter. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with fresh rosemary. Roast for 30 minutes, or until meat is cooked through.

In the mean time, peel and chop the potatoes. Put in a saucepan covered with water and boil until the flesh is soft enough to easily pierce with a knife. Strain and put back in the pot. Add the milk, sour cream or yogurt, salt and pepper and mash until smooth.

In a separate pan make the gravy. Melt the 2 T butter. Slowly add in the flour to make a roux. When the flour and butter have come together, slowly add the chicken stock bit by bit, making sure the liquid has completely incorporated and there are no lumps before adding more. The result will be a thick but pourable gravy.

Place the peas in a small saucepan and cover with water. When the chicken is almost cooked, bring the peas to a boil and then strain.

Remove the chicken from the oven. Add the juices into the gravy and combine.

Divide the chicken, potatoes and peas between two plates. Pour over the gravy.