Chicken with roasted balsamic tomatoes

I had an abundance of yellow and red cherry tomatoes in need of using and some chicken thawed, so I took a different take on what otherwise looks to be a perfectly plausible recipe in its own right.

Baked chicken with roasted balsamic tomatoes
Adapted from the Grilled FlatIron Steak with Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce recipe by Meredith Deeds in the Aug. 21 Taste section of the Star Tribune.

Ingredients
2 pints cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper
8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or 4 breast halves)

Method
Put tomatoes in a roasting pan. If cherry tomatoes are particularly large, you may wish to cut them in half; otherwise just toss them in whole. Combine oil, vinegar, thyme, garlic and seasoning in a small dish. Drizzle most of the mixture over the tomatoes. Push to one side. Place chicken in the center of the pan and drizzle with remaining mixture. Bake at 400 for about a half hour or until chicken is done and tomatoes are cracked open and sizzling.

Rating: Perfectly fine fast food with minimal fuss. Since the tomatoes were cooking with the chicken, there was plenty of liquid in the pan to be slurped up by the rice mixture served on the side. I'm sure it would be tasty with grilled chicken, or the grilled steak as well.

While it was fine and worth repeating, it's still not quite my favorite method of roasting cherry tomatoes. At the end of the season when I'm faced with platters-full, I turn to Tomato Confit, a New York Times recipe the Star Tribune republished a few years back.

Lots of likely looking recipes in this week's Taste. Now to see if I try them all while it's still seasonal or whether I clip them all and they languish and turn yellow in my files.