I’m all about less cleaning up, so one pot dishes are my jam. This dish has so much flavour, great textures AND it can all be cooked in one pot. You don’t even need any bowls for prep. Just a chopping board, knife, and a dish to bake it all in. The flavours from the chicken make the lentils and barley so tasty and the apricots add just the right amount of sweetness.

I love cooking but every time I wish kitchen fairies would come do my cleaning up. This dish needs no kitchen fairies. And if you have a dishwasher it’ll be the easiest clean up yet. And one of the yummiest meals you’ve had in ages. I mentioned the apricots and they’re so good in this. In no way reminiscent of apricot chicken nightmares, just a little burst of sweetness with the spicy and savoury flavours.

This is similar to my Za’atar baked chicken but with more grains and some different flavours. It’s actually sort of a cross between that and this grain salad. I always feel like recipes are continuously evolving things and this is such a good example of that. I remember eating the grain salad and thinking how yummy it would be if all the grains were baked with chicken stock and now where here, with all the pots and pans gone and everything must in the one dish. Being all yum and delightful.

If you’re all about simplifying how you cook in your home then you should also check out Marley Spoon, they’ve got lots of healthy options and the recipes are simple and easy to make. You can also get $35 off with this code: HEALTHYHUNTER. (This link is an affiliate link and a small commission is earned to keep this little blog going, thank you for your support!)

Ingredients

¼ cup French lentils

1/4 cup farro (barley and spelt work well too)

2 Tbs spring onion or shallot

2 Tbs finely chopped flat leaf parsley

3 apricots, roughly chopped

1 clove of garlic, smashed

1 1/2 cups chicken stock or bone broth

400g chicken pieces, on the bone with skin on (Chicken Maryland works well)

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp chilli powder

1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika

pinch of all spice

1 tsp olive oil

2 pieces of orange peel (about 3cm lone 1 cm wide)

½ a cinnamon stick, or 1 small one

1/8 red cabbage

1 tsp white wine vinegar

¼ tsp salt

½ cup mint

2 Tbs Feta, crumbled

Directions

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Find a small baking dish that will fit the chicken pieces in one layer.

In the bottom of the baking dish combine the lentils, farro, onion, parsley, and apricots. Pour over the stock. Add the garlic, orange peel and the cinnamon stick. Place the chicken pieces in a single layer on top of this.

Mix the spices together in a small bowl and sprinkle over the chicken skin. Drizzle the olive oil over and rub the spice mix into the skin.

Cover the baking dish in foil and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for a further 15 – 20 minutes until the skin is crispy and the liquid has been absorbed by the lentils and farro.

Meanwhile. Slice cabbage finely and place in a bowl sprinkle with salt and the vinegar and toss. Set aside until chicken is cooked.

To serve, place cabbage on the bottom of a plate, sprinkle over ½ the mint leaves. Remove the chicken from the farro and lentils and set aside. Spoon the lentils and farro over the cabbage and the mint. Top with the chicken and finish with remaining mint and the feta.

HH. x