Kitchen Adventures: Saucy Chicken

Good Evening Humble Readers! 

I'm slowly in the process of getting my pictures from our trip sorted out and finalized to show you all, but in the mean time, I have something fun to share.

The other night I wanted something tomato-y for dinner.  I went to the little grocery store across the back lane from us, looking for inspiration.  The only thing that really jumped out at me in the meat case were some chicken thighs... and that got me thinking.  This is what I came up with...

Saucy Chicken

4-8 chicken thighs (bone in, skin on, for more flavour)
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
flour
1 can diced tomatoes (28 oz can)
1 med yellow onion, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced or grated
basil
oregano
rosemary
1 bunch of green onion, coarsely chopped


Heat olive oil in an oven-safe skillet or dutch oven.  Season both side of the chicken with salt and pepper, and brown in olive oil until deep golden brown, remove from pan.  Saute diced onion and garlic in the same pot.  When the onion is translucent, use a couple tablespoons of flour and make a roux.  Once the flour has cooked through, add the can of tomatoes.  Stir and allow to the roux to thicken the tomato juices.  If it ends up getting too thick, you can thin it with some chicken stock or water.  Add in basil, oregano, and rosemary to taste (I prefer a lot of basil and just a little rosemary) and stir.  Return the chicken to the pot, cover and transfer to a 300 degree oven.  Allow to simmer slowly in the oven for 35-45 minutes, until chicken is cooked through (I think it would be great to do this at a lower temp like 225 for a couple of hours to really allow the flavours to blend). 

I served it over rice cooked in two parts chicken stock and one part lemon juice,  Top with the coarsely chopped green onion.

It turned out soooo yummy and it is definitely going into my regular rotation.  I only made 4 chicken thighs, so I had a lot of sauce left over.  It was really good the next day over grilled pork chops and mashed potatoes.

Enjoy!