Delicious Slow Roast Tomato, Garlic & Basil Italian Style Chicken
I have called this an Italian Style Chicken bake due to the tomato, garlic and basil but there is a slight French feel to it too, with the roasted vegetables cooking down to a kind of ratatouille base. I guess we could call it a fusion chicken bake? Regardless of its origin and influences, it is pretty delicious so I hope you will give it a try.
My Italian style chicken bake requires a little more effort than most of my other chicken bake recipes. This is due to it requiring the vegetables to be partially roasted prior to adding the chicken and the tomatoes. This is to heighten the overall roasted flavours of the dish and will also allow some time for the chicken to soak in the marinade flavours prior to cooking, always a bonus in my eye.
I have used both chicken thighs and drumsticks for this recipe but you can easily just use thighs or even chicken breast if you are not so keen on thigh meat. The cooking time should not be affected but always worth checking the internal temperatures with a probe or cutting open a little bit prior to serving just to be sure it is fully cooked.
The base of the marinade paste for the Italian style chicken is made from my slow roast cherry tomatoes, recipe here, but you can use a jar of shop bought sun dried tomatoes in oil and add some oregano, basil and thyme when you are blitzing the marinade if you do not have the homemade ones in the fridge already. The key thing is the intensified flavour you get from the almost dehydrated tomatoes.
I made this for a friend who came over for tea and we were a little bit too keen to get stuck in as it came out of the oven that I forgot to take the finished dish picture and had to take a close up picture so you could see the level of roasting we are looking for. The marinade will darken a lot but don’t worry, it all adds to the overall flavour of the finished dish.
Hope you enjoy and drop me a message if you give this recipe a try.
S Xx
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 3 People | 15 Minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 70 Minutes |
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Delicious Italian style chicken bake with an intense marinade made from slow roast cherry tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil and mixed herbs, roasted together with peppers, aubergine, courgette and onions with fresh tomato reduced down in the cooking.
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- 1 Jar Slow Roast Cherry Tomatoes Homemade or swap for a jar of sundried tomatoes
- 2 Cloves garlic
- 1 Bunch Fresh Basil
- 1 Pinch Fennel Seeds
- 2 Tbsp oil I used the oil from the slow roast tomato jar
- 1 KG Chicken Thighs & Drumsticks bone in
- 1/2 Whole courgette cut into chunks
- 1/2 Whole aubergine cut into chunks
- 1/2 Whole Red Pepper cut into chunks
- 1/2 Whole Red Onion cut into chunks
- 2 Tbsp oil I used the oil from the slow roast tomato jar
- Salt & Pepper seasoned well
- 2 Whole Tomatoes Cut into 6 wedges each
- Fresh Lemon optional, to serve
- Start by adding all of your ingredients into a blitzer and mix until you have a well combined smooth paste
- Add all of the marinade to the chicken portions
- And mix well to fully coat the chicken and pop into the fridge whilst you prepare the mixed roast vegetables
- Chop all of your vegetables into an oven proof dish that will be big enough to hold the chicken in too.
- Add the oil and seasoning and mix well to ensure evenly coated
- Roast in 180C fan oven for 30 minutes, giving it a stir half way through cooking. You are aiming for highlights of colour on the vegetables and for them to have reduced in size.
- Now arrange the chicken around the roasted vegetables pushing them to the sides and inbetween the chicken portions. Arrange the tomato wedges around the dish, they will cook down and give a lovely sauce over the veg along with the chicken juice that will cook out. Cook for around 40 minutes until piping hot.
- Remove from oven, serve and enjoy. We were a little too keen and I served before I took the overall dish photo so apologies for the close up finished pic.
