Slow-Baked Chicken Thighs w/ Tomato, Fennel & Lemon

I am a huge fan of quick and easy meals, or “set it and forget it” meals — when I come home after work, I want to eat within 45 minutes of being home! But, on Sundays I have the time to experience the magic that is slow roasting — something beautiful and delicious happens when food cooks at a low temperature for a long period of time.

I originally thought I might change this into a slow cooker recipe so that I could once again, set and forget it. But the recipe called for basting the chicken over a period of time so I thought I should stick to the original method of cooking. (I have never basted anything before; how I managed to avoid this technique for almost three decades is beyond me.)

Past the basting part, this recipe really isn’t very labor-intensive. You do need to give yourself around 2 and a half hours to make it though, so this is definitely a weekend recipe.  This recipe is in the latest issue of Cooking Light. And it’s worth the wait. This is one of the best chicken meals I’ve made in recent memory.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 cup(~1 larger bulb) fennel bulb, cut into thin slices
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs

• 1 (28-ounce) can whole plum tomatoes, drained
• 6 garlic cloves, smashed and torn into large pieces
• 2 lemons, sectioned
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

• 1 (1-ounce) slice whole-wheat bread
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

I made some changes to this recipe, some to do with the amount of ingredients and some with how I cut, crushed, etc. the ingredients. For the original recipe, go here.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a microwave safe bowl (10-30 seconds in the microwave should do it). Pour the melted butter into a 13×9 baking dish with sides, brushing to coat the bottom of the dish evenly.

Slice your fennel bulb. Cut off the top green part and slice off the bottom of the bulb.  Peel off any wilted outside pieces and thinly slice the rest of the bulb. (I peeled away at the bulb and thinly sliced each layer, you can really slice it however you want though.) Add the fennel to the baking dish.

Sprinkle the chicken with salt on both sides and add to the baking dish.

Pour the tomatoes into a colander and crush with a fork (or if you have one, a potato masher). If there is any of the sauce left in the colander that’s fine, pour evenly over the chicken.

Smash the garlic using the side of a knife, the garlic will separate into pieces. Pull these pieces apart to form pretty large chunks of garlic. Cut the lemon into wedges and then cut the lemon pulp from the rind. The lemon is going to melt into the dish so you don’t want any white parts still on the lemons. Top the chicken with the garlic pieces and lemon pieces.

Sprinkle the dish with thyme.

Cut 1 tablespoon butter into small pieces and scatter over the dish.

Cover with tin foil and bake at 325 degrees F for 1 hour or until  a thermometer reads 180 degrees F.

Uncover the dish and bake for another 45 minutes, basting the chicken every 5-10 minutes. (I set a timer for every 10 minutes and just used an ice cream scoop to drizzle some of the liquid in the pan over the chicken.)

Add the bread piece and cheese to a food processor, pulsing to make coarse crumbs.

Sprinkle over the chicken and drizzle with basting juices.

Bake another 10 minutes.

Top with parsley and serve with toasted bread. (I used Ciabatta slices. I added them to the over for the last 10 minutes of cooking the chicken.)

The lemon and garlic break down and seem to disappear into the tomato mixture. But every few bites you’ll get a light burst of garlic or lemon and it’s just fantastic. The fennel becomes so soft and buttery and the chicken is amazingly moist and tender. There isn’t much/any “sauce” but you really don’t need it. The thick mixture actually works really well with pieces of toast, you can kind of spread it on top of the toast and bite right in!