Roasted Balsamic Chicken Thighs with Blistered Cherry Tomatoes is just so easy and beyond delicious. It’s elegant for guests and easy for a random Tuesday night. It will become your go-to chicken dinner.
Hi, my name is Johanna and I cook the same meals every week; I am the president of the dinner rut society. We all fall victim to it; no one is safe. I know you’re in one right now, just like me. As we speak, I am experiencing dinner anxiety. I am so deep in dinner despair that I have my dinner rut meal plan for every season.
Yet, there are some weekly recipes that don’t feel boring or stuck at all. They are fast, easy, and adaptable to the contents of my fridge and the flavors of the season. They make you feel full, warm and nourished. These recipes are so dependable you can serve them to guests and even your picky children.
That recipe for me is roasted chicken thighs in a cast iron skillet. I make this recipe every week because it’s easy and downright delicious. The chicken is infused with fresh herbs and paired with caramelized shallots, whole, creamy garlic cloves, and blistered cherry tomatoes. What makes it exceptional is the balsamic vinegar that reduces into a sweet, tangy gravy. Slitting the chicken skin and searing it before roasting cuts the oven time and yields an extra crispy skin.
This sounds super fancy. You’re thinking “no way, I don’t have time for this. She said words like caramelized, and blistered. I need shake and bake, girl!” What if I told you this chicken’s oven cook time from start to finish is in 35-40 minutes flat? What if I told you all those “fancy” words are not fancy, they are flavor enhancing tricks to take simple ingredients to the next level of yum!
So get gussied up for a Tuesday night in leggings and fuzzy socks and dig yourself out of that dinner rut. This roasted chicken thigh dish is here to save us from the weeknight dinner disaster, from dinner party despair, and seasonal stress. Use my crash course cooking school section below to elevate your roast chicken meals into flavors you love and dinners you crave.
Crash Course Cooking School: Roast Chicken Thighs
The Building Blocks:
Use this method as the building blocks to create other delicious roasted chicken thigh dishes. The foundation of this recipe is marinade, slit chicken skin, sear, roast chicken with vegetables, then reduce the sauce. Create your own marinade, add your own herbs, add in different sauce enhancers- the world is your chicken dish!
The Details:
Marinating: This step is completely optional but well worth the effort! Marinating the chicken in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight allows the flavors to absorb. It is also a time saver to pull it out of the fridge and get it on the stove fast.
Dry your Chicken: Thoroughly drying the chicken with a paper towel will yield a crispier chicken.
Slitting the chicken skin: Cutting about a two inch slit through the chicken skin (not the meat) will allow the fat and juices a vent hole while cooking
Searing: Searing the chicken first gets the cooking started quicker, the excess chicken fat to reduce before roasting, and for the flavors to start to seal in.
Add flavor to your sauce enhancers: Adding aromatics like whole cloves of garlic, herbs, acid (like lemons, oranges, tomatoes, etc), and shallots will infuse flavor into your sauce, your chicken, and are delicious to eat. You can even add white wine or a drizzle of honey about 1/2 way through cooking!
Playing with Tenderizers: Drizzling your chicken with wine, or an acid like balsamic vinegar will tenderize your protein and add another layer of complex flavor to your dish.
Quickly broil your sauce: Putting the roasting dish under the broiler (and remembering to watch it very carefully) after your chicken has been removed allows the sauce to reduce and to get that extra kiss of flavor.
Roasted Balsamic Chicken Thighs with Blistered Cherry Tomatoes
Equipment
- 12 inch Cast Iron Skillet
Ingredients
- 8 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon + ¼ teaspoon Trader Joe’s Soffritto Seasoning Blend divided (see note)
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt plus more to taste
- 3 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons + 2–3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil divided
- 8 3-inch sprigs of rosemary, plus more for topping
- 14 sprigs of thyme plus more for topping
- 1 large head garlic
- 4-5 Shallots
- ½-¾ cup Cherry Tomatoes
- ⅓ cup Balsamic vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (or 415°F on convection roast).
- Trim excess fat from the chicken thighs and pat them dry with paper towels. Using kitchen shears or a sharp knife, cut a 2 -inch slit in the center of each chicken skin.
- In a small bowl, combine garlic powder, ½ teaspoon Soffritto, ¼ teaspoon salt, and 3 tablespoons oil (it will be a loose marinade).
- Spoon the marinade over the chicken, making sure to also get it underneath the skin. Place one sprig of rosemary and 1–2 sprigs of thyme underneath each skin, too. If not using right away, marinate chicken in the refrigerator up to 12 hours.
- Break up the head of garlic, separating the cloves and leaving their skin intact. Add them to a roasting pan. Peel the shallots, slice them in half or in quarters depending on their size, and add to the pan.
- In the cast-iron skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil over high heat. When the oil begins to shimmer, add the chicken to the skillet, skin side down. Cook 4 minutes or until the skin turns a deep golden brown. (You may need to work in batches.) Flip and cook 1 more minute, then transfer chicken to the roasting pan, skin side up.
- Scatter remaining sprigs of rosemary and thyme over the chicken. Sprinkle with remaining ¼ teaspoon Soffritto. Drizzle with remaining 2–3 tablespoons oil and sprinkle with salt to taste.
- Roast chicken for 30 minutes.
- Add the cherry tomatoes to the roasting pan and pour balsamic vinegar over the chicken. Baste and return to the oven for another 15 minutes, or until the juices run clear and a thermometer inserted in the chicken reads at least 180°F.
- Transfer chicken to a platter and cover with foil.
- Turn oven to broil and place the roasting pan under the broiler for 1–2 minutes, until the balsamic vinegar has reduced and the tomatoes have blistered. Pour tomatoes, shallots, garlic, and reduced balsamic vinegar over the chicken and serve.
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