Chicken thighs with burst tomato harissa sauce and feta

There's a point in the summer when we finally get our first taste of truly ripe tomatoes where it seems like sacrilege to do anything but just eat them raw. We spend a few weeks in a rotation of fresh tomato pasta sauce, salad Caprese along side corn on the cob, and of course BLTs. Heaven.

But eventually, I'm willing to cook them, and now that I'm starting to get a daily harvest of cherry tomatoes from the garden, it was time to try this recipe.

It called for oregano, but my herb plant shopping was a little disrupted by the pandemic this year, and for once, I didn't have any volunteer oregano or marjoram. But I did have volunteer lemon basil, and that worked perfectly in this recipe.

Chicken thighs with tomatoes and feta

Adapted from Bon Appetit, August 2020

Ingredients

6 chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on)

½ teaspoon plus of salt

2 pints cherry tomatoes

¼ cup harissa paste

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

3 sprigs oregano or basil, divided

4 ounces  feta, cut into rough chunks

1 tablespoon red or white wine, optional

Method

Pat chicken thighs dry. Sprinkle with salt. Place skin-side down in a large cast-iron skillet or other pan that allows you to get a good brown crispy skin. Cook over medium heat until well browned, about 15 minutes, leaving chicken undisturbed, but rotating pan for even browning.  Transfer to a plate, skin-side up.

 In same skillet, combine tomatoes, harissa, vinegar, ½ teaspoon salt and 1 herb sprig. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes burst. Nestle chicken among the tomatoes, skin-side up, and cook over medium low heat until chicken is cooked through (165 degrees at the bone) and sauce is thickened. Depending on how juicy your tomatoes are, you might need a tablespoon of wine to make the proper sauce consistency.

Let rest for a few minutes off the heat. Sprinkle with feta and the leaves from the remaining herb sprigs.

Rating: Super simple, super good, super popular with the in-house taste tester. Good weeknight family supper, but fine enough for house-guest company, too. Harissa gives it a nice, but mild kick.This one is going in the rotation.