Aromatic baked chicken with potato & tomatoes

This recipe is adapted from “Jamie at Home” – Sticky & Crispy Chicken Thigh with Potato & Tomato. The chicken is really part sticky part crispy. Potato is incredibly good. We were literally fine dining at home! All thanks to Jamie.

This was our 1st time doing it, & it turned out to be so nice that PP complained I didn’t cook enough! I actually felt it is better to leave us longing for more, than to end up with unfinished wasted food. Healthier this way with controlled intake right?

(PP aka ladyhomechef: Since we start cooking more at home, CY lost 10kgs! See? his pants are all unfit & we are more than happy to renew his entire wardrobe.)

Ingredients
2 large potatoes, skinned, chunked
4 chicken thighs, chunked
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
7 - 10 cherry tomatoes
Handful leaves of oregano, sage, rosemary
Balsamic vinegar
2 handfuls rocket leaves
Apple cider vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Handful walnuts

Steps
1) Preheat oven to 200 deg C.
2) Boil potatoes in salted boiling water for about 12 min. Try not to overcook as ours were a little too tender & broke into smaller pieces later.
3) Season chicken with olive oil, salt & pepper.
4) Fry chicken in pan on medium high heat, skin down 1st. We left it frying for too long on the skin, causing skin to stick on the pan. To avoid this, toss chicken almost immediately. Fry 10 min, toss periodically. Chicken fat will start liquidating.
5) Prick tomato skin with fork, once on each will do. When potatoes are almost cooked, add tomatoes in with potatoes for 1 min.
6) Drain potatoes & tomatoes. Use a spoon to gently press potatoes to slightly flatten it. They will slurp up flavours later. Skin tomatoes for flavour to be infused with other ingredients.
7) Pound herb leaves. Add 2 tbsp olive oil & 1 tsp balsamic vinegar. Season with salt & pepper. Crush gently with pestle in mortar to prevent oil from spilling out. The original recipe used only oregano. We added in whatever we had to supplement our limited oregano. The mixture of flavours was superb!
8) Add herbs, potatoes & tomatoes to chicken. Stir through. Bake in oven 200 deg C, 40 min. For those using small ovens like ours, which can’t fit a pan in with handle, use a large corning or visions ware which can be used for frying & baking.
9) Toss rockets with apple cider vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt & pepper. We tried our new salad spinner to dry rockets, it works! (We were skeptical previously.)
10) When baking is done, stir & spoon onto 2 dry plates. Leave excess oil behind. Heap rockets on top. Sprinkle walnuts around.

Take some photos, admire, & enjoy :-)