Lemon-Thyme chicken with vegetable ragout

Preparing the chicken

1. For the chicken, try to ensure that it's not the cheapest stuff you can buy from a supermarket as there is an allowance for water within chicken breasts and can make the chicken taste dry. Support your local butchers!
2. Juice the lemon into a small dish, and place the chicken inside -- allowing the chicken to absorb some of the citrus. If you want to have an au-naturale lemon chicken, then slice the lemons and place them on the chicken in the last step.
3. Set this to the side, pre-heat your oven to 190 C and prepare to chop your vegetables.
   

Preparing the vegetables

 Preparing the vegetables isn't too much of a difficult step -- this is simply slicing them large enough so that they do not shrivel once the heat of the oven reaches them. With the use of foil over the tray, there is some form of latent heat.

If they are cut too thick, obviously the timing of the chicken being heated with the chicken will cock up, and you can end up with dry chicken by the time your vegetables are properly cooked.

It goes without saying to wash your damn vegetables.

1. Courgettes: Slice them fairly thick, around 1.5cm or more if you're feeling generous.
2. Aubergine : Aubergines are quite large, so there's not that much of a need for a whole one. Slice again, around 1.5cm thick, half and then chop into equal sized chunks. Don't forget to lightly salt :)
   
3. Peppers: Slice down around the innards of the peppers, or top-tail and remove the innards with the tip of the blade (your exciting choice!), then half the remaining sides you have and then chop into 1.5cm thick slices.
4. Red Onion: Half the onion, and then slice into 1.5cm wide semicircles.
5. Place all the vegetables into the foiled tray, which is also deep to hold them.
   
6. Garlic: Peel, place on your chopping board - angle your knife so that the garlic is under it, and crush it with a firm blow to the "thick end" of the knife. Separate the garlic over the rest of the vegetables so that there's no concentration of garlic-ness.
7. Season with olive oil over the vegetables.
8. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables, and season with thyme on each chicken breast. If you're doing original lemon chicken, place the lemons on the chicken, astoundingly.
9. Place foil over the deep pan, place in oven for 25 minutes. Checking periodically to ensure the chicken isn't going dry.
10. Bored waiting for the thing to cook? Read À la recherche du temps perdu!