Roasted chicken thighs with cherry tomatoes

Assemble this meal the night before for a quick and easy dinner!

A surplus of ripe cherry tomatoes in my tiny urban garden was the inspiration for this recipe, which my family has affectionately dubbed “winner winner chicken dinner”. The flavours in this dish are terrific and I love that you can quickly assemble it the night before, then pop it in the oven to roast away while you decompress (aka drink wine) as it cooks. Note that you can also use boneless thighs, if you can find them with the skin on. This dish is very family-friendly and individual plates can easily be jazzed up for more adventuresome palates by adding a few halved Kalamata olives at serving time and finishing with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Ingredients

• 6 – 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
• 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) kosher salt
• 6 whole cloves garlic, peeled and halved if large
• 2 cups (500 mL) cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 tablespoon (15 mL) olive oil
• 1 tablespoon (15 mL) balsamic vinegar
• few grinds freshly ground black pepper
• 3 – 4 sprigs fresh rosemary or thyme
• additional chopped fresh herbs, to garnish

Method

• Preheat oven to 375F.
• Trim chicken pieces of any excess fat then place in a baking dish that’s big enough to allow a gap between each piece of meat. Sprinkle the chicken with salt.
• Put the halved cherry tomatoes and peeled garlic in a bowl. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic over top and toss to combine.
• Sprinkle the tomatoes and garlic over the chicken and tuck them into the gaps between the pieces. Keep the tops of the chicken uncovered so the skin will crisp up. Grind pepper over everything.
• Place the rosemary or thyme sprigs over the tomatoes.
• Bake, uncovered, for about 45 minutes, until chicken skin is browned and crispy and internal temperature is 170F. Remove the sprigs of cooked herbs (they will be bitter-tasting) and discard.
• Serve chicken and tomatoes over rice or buttered noodles, drizzling generously with pan sauce and sprinkling with chopped fresh herbs.

Serves 3 – 4 and can easily be doubled or tripled.