Just add chicken.
This is the pinnacle of easy, every packaged food marketer’s dream. Simply pay your $8.99, empty the contents of the bag into a crockpot, baking dish or skillet, add chicken et voilà - dinner! Well, this dish is really that easy. Just make a double batch of this Herbed Tomato Salad for your next summer dinner and the next day dump it into a baking dish with some chicken thighs, reduce the sauce and dinner is served.
You can seriously have this in the oven in 5 minutes and sit back with a glass of wine while waiting for the chicken to cook through. Then dump the sauce into a skillet and wait 10 minutes for it to reduce and dinner is served. If you really want to do some heavy lifting, toast a little bread to sop up the juices.
Now, I am feeling as lazy as this recipe so I’m going to stop writing and go take a nap. Happy cooking.
Baked Chicken Cacciatore
Serves 4-6
This simple dish reinvents a leftover tomato salad into a fresh, rich, one-dish summer. Sweet tomatoes, pungent herbs and sharp feta balance with full-flavored chicken thighs for a delicious meal with almost no work! Enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 recipe Herbed Tomato Salad
4-8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs depending on how many people you want to serve
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Place tomato salad in a baking dish. 9” square will fit four chicken thighs and a 9x13” will easily fit 6-8. Nestle chicken thighs into tomato salad and season with salt and pepper. Place in oven and bake until chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes. The fully-cooked chicken should register 165F on a quick-read thermometer.
Remove baking dish from oven and reserve chicken on a plate. Transfer sauce to a 12” skillet and set over medium-high heat. Cook until sauce is reduced and thickened, about 10 minutes. Pour in any accumulated juices from the chicken and serve sauce with chicken.
TIP: There will some fat floating in the skillet as the sauce reduces. This is from the dressing and the chicken skin. You can skim it off or just enjoy it!
