This is one of our favourite family dinners – a dish that everyone finds appealing and that can easily be adapted for seasonal changes and whims. Shown in the photo above is how this meal usually finds it’s way to our table – with the olive oil, Vino Cotto, garlic and juice from tomatoes coming together to form a wonderful, light sauce to spoon over the top. I mostly serve this dish with rice in our home, though the chicken could just as easily be sliced up, then tossed back through the juices before serving over pasta. The flavours are all certainly Italian, though it’s a dish, somewhat without technique, that involves simply throwing everything into a baking dish and watching it transform. Perfect!
Oven-Baked Italian Chicken | Gather and Graze
Ingredients
- 4 Free-Range Chicken Thigh Fillets
- 2 Cloves Garlic (finely chopped)
- A Few Sprigs of Fresh Thyme
- A Good Drizzle of Olive Oil
- A Decent Slurp of Vino Cotto (or Balsamic Vinegar)
- Sea Salt & Black Pepper
- Large Handful of Cherry Tomatoes
- Handful of Kalamata Olives
- Italian Parsley & Basil (Roughly chopped or Torn)
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.
Place the chicken fillets into a large oven-proof baking dish and season both sides with a good grinding of sea salt and black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and scatter the chopped garlic, thyme leaves and cherry tomatoes over the chicken. Use hands to ensure the chicken and tomatoes are lightly coated all over. Slurp some Vino Cotto over the top and then place into the oven to bake for about 40-45 minutes (adding the olives for the final 10-15 minutes of cooking).
At about the 30 minute mark, when I add the olives, I often turn the thigh fillets over to brown a little better on both sides.
To finish, scatter the top with parsley and basil and allow the chicken to rest for approximately 10 minutes before serving. Perfect accompanied by rice, pasta or some crusty Italian bread, with the juices spooned over the top.
For tips on cooking the perfect, gently fragrant rice for this dish, please follow this link.
Notes on Cooking:
- Free-Range Chicken breasts can be used, though I find the thigh fillets to be much more flavourful and tender. The cooking time will not be quite so long if you choose to use breasts.
- Other vegetables also work really well added to this dish. The likes of zucchini (courgette), capsicum (red pepper), green beans, small wedges of onion to name a few.
- Please check the chicken pieces before serving, to ensure they are fully cooked.
Gather & Graze 
This chicken dish looks lovely. The flavours of the chicken combined with the olives, thyme, balsamic vinegar and tomatoes must be delicious. Such as simple dish too!
Thanks so much! This makes a really great and easy mid-week dinner… it’s still one of our family favourites.
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I heart the idea of using balsamic vinegar in a chicken dish. Would love to try this, with some yummy bread to sop up the sauce. YUM!!
Oh Azita my friend, I’ve just come across this comment from you while looking back on this recipe! Better late than never to respond… even if it’s almost a year late! Thanks as always for your kind words of support. Hope you’re having a fabulous week! M.xx
I wish this was by my side now rather than on my screen!
Thank you Brydie – very sweet of you to say so!
Wow. this looks really delicious. Love all the flavours in it basil, tomatoes, garlic, olives. Yum!
Cheers Jo! You can’t go wrong when you bring together ingredients such as these can you! 🙂
Oh, I LOVE this Margot! I think you’ve helped me decide what to serve for dinner tonight!
Lovely to hear that… let me know how it goes Lidia!
Oh, it was delicious Margot! Not having any vino cotto and having run out of balsamic, I added a splash of white wine. My kalamata olives went bad… I don’t know how that could be, with them sitting in all that brine. Luckily I had these spicy green pitted olives from Calabria. It was just perfect! Thanks for a great recipe!
That’s great to hear Lidia – thanks so much for the feedback! I think a bit of a spice-hit from the olives can be a wonderful thing… I’ve made it with kalamata olives marinated in chilli and garlic before and it was fabulous. A slosh of white wine in the dish is a lovely touch too – just might have to try that next time! 🙂
Awesome recipe Margot, I especially like your ” a decent slurp of vino cotto” in the ingredient list – love it 🙂
Thanks Karen! It’s the only way I’m prepared to measure it for this type of recipe. 🙂
Perfect – my kind of cooking (and eating!). I can almost smell that lovely basil too 🙂
Lovely – I’m so pleased that you like it! The basil is rapidly disappearing… one of my absolute favourite herbs!
The other advantage of using chicken thighs is that they tend to taste better than breasts. I love the idea of this simple tasty dish; it’s a shame that lots of people don’t cook because they think it’s complicated and makes lots of pans dirty. If they read this, they’d soon change their minds!
Absolutely Anne – I use chicken thighs much more often than breasts, because of that exact reason! Thanks for your lovely comment… Gather and Graze was born purely from a desire to encourage more people to cook.
I’m about to cook it, looks great!!
Hi Ali! I hope you love it as much as we do! Let me know how it goes… M.xx
It’s delicious! I added asparagus for a seasonal twist. There is a lot around so I’m making the most of it. I love the flavour cooked olives give. I used jumbo stuffed with garlic – yum. Thanks!
Great to hear Ali – so pleased that you enjoyed it! Asparagus would go wonderfully with the chicken and that extra hit of garlic from the olives would be delicious too! xx
There you are cooking really light, healthy and delicious dinners and I’m wrapping up warm and over-indulging in comfort food! Would prefer to swap, if possible >)
The sun has thankfully come back out to shine here today Johnny! Though this dish would still be comforting and warming with your cooler autumn evenings too. No butter in this one! 😉
This is a fantastic chicken recipe! I love it. Has all the flavors I enjoy and seemingly simple to put together. I really like the thighs too…
Thank you! I think the thighs make a big difference… I used to use chicken breasts for this dish, but I found that it was too easy to over-cook them. The thighs stay tender and it also means that everything can be placed in the oven at the same time and come out perfectly. Simple preparation can be a wonderful thing on a weeknight or if you’re busy entertaining guests… 🙂
That looks very nice indeed!
Thanks so very much! 🙂
This dish sounds fabulous! Just the perfect meal!
Thanks Suzanne! Just to let you know that the chocolate cake I made with your chocolate caramel frosting disappeared very quickly over the weekend – absolutely delicious! 🙂
Delicious dish! It is simple, elegant, and full of flavor. A perfect meal!
Very kind of you to say… thanks Darya!
Looks Yummy!
Cheers Michael – welcome to Gather & Graze! Margot
Looks good and I love dishes that are just “thrown together”. MM 🍀
Thanks very much Mick! Me too! 🙂