Tomato baked chicken recipe

This tomato baked chicken is a rich and rustic dish, oozing with flavour.

We love this chicken tomato bake recipe - cheap, quick and easy to whip up. It makes for the perfect midweek meal. Simply brown the chicken, chuck in some shop-bought tomato sauce, basil, stock and mushrooms and transfer the casserole dish to the oven. The result is a no-fuss flavoursome dish that will serve four in 35 minutes. We’ve chosen chicken thighs here as they become gorgeously juicy and tender when cooked slowly in the oven, with the meat effortlessly falling off the bone. Serve with buttery boiled new potatoes or rice.

This recipe is part of our cheap family meals collection – under £1 a head

Ingredients

• 8 large chicken thighs
• 350g basil, Parmesan and cherry tomato ready-made sauce
• 1 punnet of button mushrooms
• 4tbsp of freshly chopped basil
• 350ml chicken stock
• 500g baby potatoes
• 40ml olive oil
• 100g-200g mozzarella cheese, optional

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas 4. Colour the chicken in a frying pan of hot oil and then place into a baking dish along with the basil, Parmesan and cherry tomato sauce, whole button mushrooms and half of the basil. Add the chicken stock.
2. Place the dish in the oven and cook for 25 mins. While the chicken is cooking, boil the baby potatoes until cooked.
3. Drain and serve the potatoes on a plate, placing the chicken on top of them. Finish by sprinkling the other half of the basil, drizzling the olive oil over the top and add cheese if using it.

Top tip for making tomato baked chicken:

We’ve added an optional layer of mozzarella for a Mediterranean feel, but feel free to grate over parmesan or cheddar as an alternative. They’ll add a nice crunchy texture to your tray bake.

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