Sauteed Chicken With Cherry Tomatoes

cookiedog's Note:

Adapted from Spices of Life by Nina Simonds.The wine and shallots make this delicious. It is quick to prepare and great for people watching their calories.

• Total Time: 40 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ½ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (or boneless, skinless thighs)
• 4 garlic cloves , peeled, smashed with flat side of a knife, and chopped coarsely
• 6 shallots , peeled and chopped coarsely
• ¾ lb cherry tomatoes (1 pints) or ¾ lb grape tomatoes , rinsed and drained (1 pints)
• 1 ½ tablespoons dried oregano
• ¾ cup dry white wine
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Heat 12 inch skillet, Dutch oven or casserole with lid. Pour in oil and heat until quite hot. Line pan with a batch of chicken breasts and fry over high heat until golden brown on one side, about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Turn over and brown other side. Remove with tongs and continue browning remaining pieces. Set chicken aside.
2. Reduce heat to medium, put garlic and shallots in pan, and saute until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add oregano, white wine, salt and pepper and saute uncovered about 4 to 4 1/2 minutes, shaking pan from time to time.Add tomatoes and return chicken to pan, cover and cook about 10 to 15 minutes, or until chicken is done. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.
3. Scoop chicken out onto a platter and serve with rice or over mashed potatoes.

Reviews

[Dr. Jenny]

An easy, healthy and yummy dish! I agree with Zurie that it needs more depth of flavor and that perhaps red pepper flakes might have helped. The only substitutions that I made were to use grape tomatoes versus cherry and dry sherry instead of white wine, as I had recently run out. The chicken was moist and the oregano flavor really came through (in a good way) in the dish. My favorite bites were the ones with the tomatoes. Thanks for posting!

[Chef floWer]

Yummy, easy and quick. I spend the late afternoon at the theatre with Little Miss (DD) and I needed something quick to make for dinner and this was it. I used brown shallots but otherwise kept to the recipe. I served it with slices of crusty bread and we all enjoyed this recipe. Thank you cookiedog - *Made for Zaar World Tour 4*

[Zurie]

MADE FOR ZWT4. This was a life-saver today: I was away from home most of the day, and needed an easy recipe! Cookiedog, as can be seen in my photo, I added unpeeled baby potatoes to the dish because I had no time to cook rice! This was a plain, simple, comfort food dish which has no pretensions. I used ready-cut chicken pieces, skin on and and bone in, as skinless chicken breasts are one of our pet dislikes. Your recipe was clear, and I assumed I did not have to cook the sauce until almost nothing was left. I loved the lots of oregano! Maybe I used even more than specified. It scented the kitchen while simmering! I used small Italian plum tomatoes because they are so sweet. I did not have shallots, so had to use small baby onions, and I also added, cut up, a small red onion. This is the kind of dish I make often, without a recipe, and next time I'll add cream or sour cream, which might give it that depth of flavour which was lacking here. Some dried chilli pepper flakes might also have helped. But we had a great dinner, served with barely-cooked cauliflower, and a salad of greens and avocado halves Thank you!!