Crisp baked chicken with cherry tomatoes and polenta
CATEGORIES
INGREDIENTS
  • Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes
  • Servings: 4-6
  • Preparation Time: 5 minutes
  • 1 recipe polenta (below) or 2 x 500g packs ready to use polenta + 4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
  • 4 skin on boneless chicken breasts, cut in half if large
  • 500g cherry tomatoes
  • few sprigs fresh rosemary
  • 2 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • Salad of seasonal leaves to serve
  • Polenta
  • 1 litre (1 quart)water
  • 3/4 cup /240g (8 1/2 oz) coarse corn meal
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
  • 15g (1/2 oz) butter
DIRECTIONS
  1. For the chicken:
  2. 1. Preheat the oven to 220ºC (425ºF/Gas Mark 7).
  3. 2. Make the polenta or crumble the ready-made polenta into chunks and put evenly into the bottom of a roasting dish. (If using the ready-made, sprinkle with the parmesan.)
  4. 3. Place the chicken breasts skin side up on top of the polenta, scatter with the cherry tomatoes then sprinkle with the rosemary and garlic, drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
  5. 4. Bake in the centre of the oven for 25-30 minutes until the chicken skin is crisp and golden and the polenta is starting to turn brown around the edges.
  6. 5. Remove from the oven and serve on warmed plates with a salad of seasonal leaves.
  7. For the polenta:
  8. 1. Bring the water to the boil in a medium saucepan. Once boiling, pour the maize meal into the pan in a slow steady stream, while constantly whisking with a wire whisk to prevent lumps forming.
  9. 2. Reduce the heat and cook the polenta, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, for 10 minutes.
  10. 3. Remove the polenta from the heat and mix in the parmesan and butter. Proceed as above.
RECIPE BACKSTORY
I developed this recipe because i needed a relatively easy main course for a dinner party. I would like to share it because everyone who has ever tried it adores it