This is a variation of a recipe from the Ottolenghi team with a few of my own refinements and tweaks.

There comes a certain point in the summer when, even when you manage to find great tomatoes, you’ve had enough of them raw and want something different. This is a great way to take advantage of summer produce with a bit of difference.

For shopping, the parsley, chives, and mint work out to be about one bunch of each where I do my shopping. Unless you’re shopping somewhere that sells each in vastly smaller or larger quantities, getting the amounts right down to the gram isn’t critical.

Ingredients

  • Half teaspoon dried thyme
  • Half teaspoon dried oregano
  • Olive oil
  • 1 kg chicken thighs, bone-in, skin on
  • 400 g datterini (or cherry tomatoes), halved
  • 1 large (ca. 200 g) beefsteak tomato
  • 15 g red wine vinegar
  • Salt
  • Black pepper, freshly ground

For the herb salsa

  • 30 g sesame seeds
  • Half teaspoon dried thyme
  • Half teaspoon dried oregano
  • 25 g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
  • 25 g flat-leaf chives, finely chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed and roughly chopped
  • 100 g olive oil
  • 50 g pitted green olives, roughly chopped
  • 10 g mint leaves, roughly chopped
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • Salt
  • Black pepper, freshly ground

Method

Toss the chicken with the dried herbs and a generous pinch of salt.

Preheat an oven to 180 °C (350 °F) with fan (convection) if available.

In an oven-safe pan, heat a film of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the tomatoes with a pinch of salt and cook them until they’ve just begun to give up their juices. Then add the chicken, skin side up, along with the vinegar. Transfer the pan to the oven uncovered and let everything braise until the sauce has reduced significantly, about 40 minutes.

Then increase the oven temperature to 200 °C (400 °F). Spoon some of the reduced sauce over the chicken and continue cooking until the chicken is nicely browned, about 20 minutes.

Remove the chicken to a plate and cover it with foil. Then continue to reduce the sauce if necessary until it’s very rich and jammy.

Prepare the herb salsa by combining all the ingredients together in a large bowl and stirring to combine.

Add the chicken back to the pot to rewarm it, and top everything with the prepared sauce.