Jamie Oliver Chicken Noodle Traybake

Jamie Oliver’s gochujang chicken noodle traybake is bone-in chicken thighs, sweetheart cabbage, ginger and garlic roasted in Korean chilli paste, with rice noodles cooked in the tray juices. It serves 4 and takes just over an hour.

In Simply Jamie (2024) the gochujang does the heavy lifting. That fermented Korean chilli paste brings sweet, spicy, deeply savoury flavour to a plain chicken traybake, so a few pantry staples end up tasting like a proper takeaway, all from one tray.

The clever part is how the noodles cook. Halfway through, you drag briefly-soaked rice noodles into the tray and pour in cold water, so they finish by drinking up all the spiced chicken juices. Nothing boils separately, and no flavour is left behind.

Jamie Oliver Chicken Noodle Traybake

Recipe by Pinch Perfect

5.0 from 1 vote

Course: Dinner, LunchCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

12

minutes

Cooking time

50

minutes

Calories

549

kcal

Total time

1

hour 

2

minutes

Jamie’s one-tray dinner from Simply Jamie: gochujang-roasted chicken thighs and sweetheart cabbage, with rice noodles hydrated in the tray juices and finished with sesame and spring onion. Serves four.

Ingredients

• 2 x 6cm pieces of ginger (80g total)

• 4 cloves of garlic

• 1 sweetheart cabbage

• 4 large free-range chicken thighs, skin on, bone in

• 2 heaped tablespoons gochujang paste

• olive oil

• red wine vinegar

• 4 nests of vermicelli rice noodles (200g total)

• 1 bunch of spring onions

• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

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Directions

• Load the tray:Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6. Peel and finely slice the ginger and garlic, and quarter the cabbage lengthways. Put it all in a 25cm x 30cm roasting tray with the chicken thighs and gochujang paste.
• Dress and roast:Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, add a pinch of black pepper, then mix well, massaging the flavour in. Arrange the chicken skin side up and roast for 30 minutes.
• Add the noodles:Plunge the noodles into boiling water for 1 minute. Remove the tray and use tongs to drag the noodles in, dressing them in the juices and nestling them into the corners. Trim the spring onions, reserving the finely sliced green tops, and add the lengths to the tray. Sit the chicken back on top so the skin crisps.
• Finish:Pour 200ml of cold water into the tray, scatter over the sesame seeds, and roast for another 20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through, the cabbage tender and the noodles hydrated. Scatter over the reserved spring onion tops to serve.

FAQs

What is gochujang, and can I swap it?

Gochujang is a thick, fermented Korean chilli paste made from red chilli, glutinous rice and soybeans. It’s spicy, but also sweet, salty and intensely savoury from the fermentation, which is what gives this traybake its depth. A jar keeps for months in the fridge.

There’s no exact substitute, since it’s the fermentation that makes it special, but a mix of sriracha with a little miso and honey gets you in the ballpark. If you can, buy the real thing from a large supermarket or an Asian grocer. Two heaped tablespoons here make it warm rather than fierce.

Why cook the noodles in the tray?

Adding the rice noodles halfway is what makes this a genuine one-tray meal. After a quick one-minute soak to soften them, they go into the tray and finish cooking in the chicken, ginger and gochujang juices, plus the splash of water, so they soak up all that flavour.

Boiling them separately in plain water would wash that flavour away and leave you an extra pan. The cold water you pour in gives them just enough liquid to hydrate fully without going mushy. Nestle them into the corners so they sit in the juices.

How do I keep the chicken skin crispy?

Use skin-on, bone-in thighs, and keep the skin proud of the liquid. When you add the noodles and water partway through, lift the thighs back up so they sit on top of everything, with the skin exposed to the dry oven heat rather than stewing in the juices.

Bone-in thighs also stay juicier than breast over the longer roast and won’t dry out. Roasting skin side up throughout, at a hot 200°C, is what crisps and lacquers the skin with the gochujang. If it needs more colour at the end, a couple of minutes under the grill finishes it.

Which cabbage should I use?

Sweetheart cabbage, also called hispi or pointed cabbage, is ideal because its loose, tender leaves roast down sweet and slightly charred at the edges in the time given. It holds some bite rather than collapsing, which suits the dish.

If you can’t find it, savoy cabbage works, cut a little thinner since it’s denser. Keep the quarters attached at the root so they hold together in the tray and don’t fall into loose leaves. The charred, gochujang-glazed cabbage is one of the best parts of the meal.

Can I make it milder, or use different noodles?

For less heat, use one tablespoon of gochujang rather than two, or stir a spoon of honey into the paste to round it off. Serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt on the side, which cools it and suits the Korean flavours. Deseeding isn’t a factor here, since the heat is all in the paste.

Vermicelli rice noodles are used because they hydrate quickly in the tray. Flat rice noodles work too, given a slightly longer soak first. Avoid wheat noodles like egg noodles, which need more liquid and can go gluey in a traybake.

What do I serve with it, and does it keep?

It’s a complete meal in one tray, protein, veg and carbs together, so it needs nothing more than the sesame and spring onion scattered over. A little extra chilli or a squeeze of lime brightens it if you like. Kimchi on the side is a natural match.

Leftovers keep for a couple of days in the fridge, though the noodles absorb more liquid and soften, so loosen with a splash of water when reheating. If you enjoy this hands-off, one-tray style.