I have been making different versions of this recipe for clients over the past month or so, finally I decided to give it a try at home since we have so many tomatoes and so much basil in our garden. It's a wonderful recipe because you just throw everything in one baking pan and stick it in the oven until it's done. Couldn't get more simple then that really. You can choose to serve the dish with pretty much anything. I chose green beans and quinoa. You could also choose rice, couscous, cauliflower rice, zoodles, etc, etc. The list is really endless.
The recipe that this is inspired by uses chorizo, but I'm not a big fan of chorizo. You could really use almost any kind of sausage in this recipe that you like. There are a couple of other ways you can personalize this recipe to your taste. You could boneless, skinless thighs. Just cut the cooking time down about 15 minutes if you make that change. You can also choose to use less garlic or mince up the garlic if you don't want large pieces in the dish. If you don't have basil try another fresh herb like rosemary.
I want to note that your dish probably won't look just like
the photo. We grew these black cherry tomatoes in our garden this year so that is what you see in the dish. Your tomatoes will still be a bright, roasted red.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
8 Bone in, skin on Chicken thighs
5 links of Andouille sausage (or whatever kind of sausage you prefer)
1 pint of Cherry tomatoes
1 head of Garlic, peeled with cloves separated but left whole
1 Tbsp of dried Basil
20 leaves of fresh Basil
1/2 cup Balsamic vinegar
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Place your chicken thighs in your 11x13 baking dish. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
Next put your sausage into the dish spread evenly over the chicken. You want to pull the sausage out of the casing. Just squeeze it out of one end and little balls of sausage will pop out.
Now spread your cherry tomatoes and garlic around the dish. Season with a little more salt and pepper and add your dry basil over top of everything.
Drizzle all the food with a little bit of olive oil and pour your balsamic vinegar on top of everything.
Place the pan in the oven for about 50 minutes. Check the dish halfway through. You are looking for a temperature in the chicken of 160 and you want the sausage to be brown and the tomatoes to be roasted.
Once the dish is done, chiffonade your basil leaves and spread around the top. Serve with your side dish of choice.