Balsamic Chicken Thighs With Burst Tomatoes

Research Doc
By Dan Pelosi for NYT Cooking

It’s very likely you have everything on hand to make this easy chicken skillet for dinner tonight. Crispy chicken thighs are sautéed in a sweet and savory balsamic glaze made with chicken stock, mustard and garlic. Sweet cherry tomatoes surround the chicken as it cooks, bursting into the balsamic, soaking up all the flavor as their juices mingle, creating a delicious sauce that would be perfect sopped up by some crusty bread or served over pasta or polßßenta.

Total Time: 40 minutes. Prep time 10 minutes, cook time 30 minutes.

Dietary Restrictions

Contains meat. Gluten-free optional.

Ingredients

4 Servings
  1. ¼cup balsamic vinegar
  2. ¼cup chicken stock
  3. 1 tablespoon Dijon or deli mustard
  4. 6 garlic cloves, grated
  5. Crushed red pepper
  6. 2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (4 to 6 thighs)
  7. Salt
  8. 1 tablespoon olive oil
  9. 1 pound cherry or grape tomatoes
  10. Fresh basil, for serving
  11. Cooked rice, pasta or polenta, or crusty bread, for serving

Equipment

  1. Oven-proof skillet or pan with cover
  2. Oven
  3. Grater
  4. Bowl, spoon, and paper towels

Preparation

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, chicken stock, mustard, garlic and a pinch of red pepper. Set aside.
  2. Pat chicken thighs with a paper towel until the skin is dry, then salt generously all over. Set a medium to large oven-proof skillet or pan over medium heat and add olive oil. When oil is hot, add chicken thighs skin-down and cook, untouched, for 9 minutes. When the skins release from the pan, flip the thighs over and cook for 5 minutes more. Remove thighs from pan and set aside.
  3. Add the balsamic mixture to the pan and bring to a simmer, stirring and scraping away the bits on the bottom as you go, 2 to 3 minutes. Meanwhile, set your oven to broil.
  4. Add tomatoes and chicken thighs, skin-side up, to the pan. Spoon the balsamic juices over the tomatoes and the chicken skin, cover the pan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 3 minutes, spoon more balsamic juices over the chicken thighs, then cover the pan and simmer for 3 more minutes.
  5. Remove the cover, spoon more balsamic juices over the chicken thighs, and then place the uncovered pan into the oven to broil until the chicken skin is browned and crispy, 2 to 4 minutes.
  6. Garnish with fresh basil leaves and serve immediately over rice, pasta or polenta, or with a few chunks of crusty bread.
  7. Serve while hot, with an optional side of rice, pasta or polenta, or with chunks of bread. Refrigerate leftovers up to 4 days.

Sample Imagery

Recipe Sites

NYT Cooking Recipes

The NYT Cooking recipes communicate effectively for me. I really enjoy the way that the ingredients and preparation steps are formatted side-by-side. I imagine that when a person preparing food in the kitchen with greasy fingers, this feature would prove to be very helpful; users won't have to scroll up and down too often. I also enjoy the feature that shows exactly how many servings the recipe will yield. It's good to know how much food you are going to end up with.

Food Network

I think this site is also good, for many of the same reasons as why I enjoy NYT Cooking. It displays ingredients and steps next to each other, and shows the yield. In addition to those things, the Food Network recipe also rates how easy or difficult the recipe is, a helpful feature.

Pinch of Yum

Pinch of Yum is a cooking site that is arguably a little more complex to navigate through; but on the other hand, it also presents lots of additional information that I find valuable. For example, users are able to check of items from the ingredietns list, making organization and keeping track easier. Each step of the recipe also comes with a short video that clearly illustrates what to do.

Other Sites

Peepal People

I think this site shows a lot of cohesion while also having a lot of personality. To me, this is a strong example of brand identity, which is also reinforced by the methods of image treatment. The way content is framed is something that I should keep in mind when designing my own recipe page.

Jonite

I love the typographic style of this site. The industriality to it reminds me of a printed receipt, which somehow ties into the steps of making food in my mind. Users can also navigate through the various case studies of Jonite one by one, which is a logic that could be interesting to explore with each step of the recipe. It would create the opportunity to introduce more description and images in each part of the process.

Purpose Talent

This site is very fun. Cooking should be a fun process. The ink+paper feel and the subtle interactions add so much visual life to the otherwise simple, minimalistic site. The concept of paper cards could also work well for illustrating steps in a recipe.