Roasted Chicken and Pumpkin with Pesto dressing

After heading home and wanting something easy to cook I decided upon Donna Hay's Roasted Chicken and Pumpkin with Pesto dressing which was absolutely amazing, a definite winner, perhaps it was the pesto - I love pesto and would happily eat it with anything, but combined with the sweet pumpkin and moist chicken was a winner!!

The Recipe - Roasted Chicken and Pumpkin with Pesto dressing by Donna Hay Autumn 2010
500g jap pumpkin, cut into wedges (I used butternut squash as I feel it has a nicer taste)
350g chat (baby) potatoes, halved (I used Royal Blues as I find these my favourites over here)
1 red onion, chopped
olive oil, for drizzling
2 x 200g chicken breast fillets
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
for the pesto
1 cup chopped basil leaves
2 tbsp chopped toasted pine nuts
2 tsp finely grated lemon rind
125ml olive oil
sea salt
cracked black pepper

The Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Place the pumpkin, potato and onion on a baking tray and drizzle with oil and toss to combine. Roast for 15 minutes
2. Drizzle the chicken with oil, add to the tray and roast for a further 12-15 minutes or until chicken is golden and cooked through.
3. Meanwhile make the pesto. Place the basil leaves, pine nuts, crushed garlic and finely grated Parmesan, lemon rind, olive oil, sea salt, cracked black pepper and salt in a bowl. Use 1/4 of this recipe with 1 tbsp white wine.
4. Slice the chicken and place on the plate with the pumpkin, onions and potatoes and spoon over the dressing.

Wowwe was this delicious, can't wait to have it again and the addition of the lemon rind to the pesto was a really tasty addition to the pesto - I think I will add this to my usual pesto recipe.