Chicken, Potato and Capsicum Tray Bake

Silvia Colloca's whole butterflied chicken roasted over potatoes, red onion and skin-on garlic cloves with white wine, rosemary and thyme. Italian Sunday cooking, one tray, no fuss. The juices crisp the potatoes; the wine builds the gravy.

Butterflying the chicken (cutting out the backbone and pressing the bird flat) is the technique that makes the dish work as a one-tray bake. The flat bird cooks evenly in around forty-five minutes; a whole, un-butterflied chicken would either undercook in the middle or overcook at the edges. Ask the butcher to butterfly for you, or do it at home with a sharp pair of kitchen shears.

Skin-on garlic cloves (rather than peeled) is the small Italian household move that improves the dish. The skins protect the garlic from burning during the roast; the flesh inside steams and softens into a sweet, jammy paste that can be squeezed out at the table and spread on bread or stirred into the pan juices. Six to eight whole cloves per tray.

Dry white wine (Pinot Grigio, Verdicchio, Vermentino) deglazes the bottom of the tray during the cook and forms the foundation of the pan-juice gravy. Pour the wine in halfway through the roast (after the chicken has begun to render its fat and brown the underside of the potatoes) so it reduces under the bird and concentrates the flavour. Fresh rosemary and thyme tucked under the chicken; sea salt and black pepper. Serve straight from the tray; a green salad on the side; a glass of the same wine you cooked with.