Why Did The Potatoes In My Spanish Chicken Traybake Stay Soft?

Our answer

Nigella's Spanish Chicken With Chorizo And Potatoes (from KITCHEN) is a traybake that cooks chicken thighs, chorizo sausage and new (baby white) potatoes together in a hot oven. There are quite a lot of ingredients, hence the recipe suggests using two shallow roasting tins.

The pans need to be big enough to take the ingredients in one layer, as the surfaces need to be exposed to the heat of the oven. As the oven is very hot (220c/200c fan/425F) this should be enough to yield crisp chicken skin and potatoes. If the ingredients have not turned crisp and golden then we suspect that the cause may be that the sides of the roasting pan are too deep, which makes it harder for the hot air to circulate over the surface of the food and makes it more likely that the ingredients have steamed instead of roasted. In the photograph the pans shown are quarter sheet pans with a depth of around 3.25cm (1 1/4 inches) and are approximately 40 x 25cm (16 x 10 inches). If your roasting pans are deeper than this then it may be better to switch to using large baking sheets or baking trays with a lip.