Italian Infused Chicken Recipe

The other day we covered the Soffitto, also known as one of the Holy Trinities of Italian Cooking and to many it is the only Holy Trinity. In fact, I have learned since posting about it, that many have never heard it called Soffritto, but in their households growing up it was known as the "Holy Trinity" or just the "Trinity." Perhaps, this is a regional thing.

The purpose of my Soffritto in that post was to use as a base for some Italian Infused Chicken, which would become the base of several of my upcoming meals. Now there is not a hardcore recipe for Italian Infused Chicken, it is kind of your call as to how much chicken you want to cook up and which herbs. So feel free to play with it, alter it, and make it your own. Here was how I made my last batch. Recipes incorporating this chicken will soon follow.

Italian Infused Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

Soffritto (mine had 2 celery, 2 carrots, and 1 red onion finely chopped and then I minced about 6 cloves of garlic into it at the end)

12 chicken thighs
Olive Oil and Butter for browning chicken

16 oz Chicken Broth (I used about half a quart of Trader Joe's Free Range Organic Chicken Broth)

Extra minced garlic

Thyme, Sage, or Rosemary
Salt & Pepper (Red or Black)

Directions:

Spray 13X9 pan with olive oil or coat it with butter. Heat oven to 300 degrees.
After preparing Soffritto in a skillet, dump it into the 13X9 and even it out on the bottom of the pan.
Add some more olive oil and butter to the skillet, enough to keep the chicken from sticking as you brown it in the pan. Place 3-4 chicken thighs into skillet and quickly brown on both sides and then place them on the bed of soffritto in the 13X9 pan (chicken will still be raw, we are only browning it for flavor).
After all chicken thighs are browned and added to the 13X9 pan, add more minced garlic to the skillet and saute for about 2 minutes just to make fragrant. Scoop onto chicken in 13X9 pan.
Pour 16 oz of chicken broth over chicken. Then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and whichever herb you prefer to flavor your chicken. I used thyme. Cover with foil.

Bake at 300 degrees for 2 hours or until chicken thighs internal temperature reaches a minimum of 165 degrees.

Serve Chicken Thighs with other sides or remove chicken meat from bones and save with the broth and soffritto left in the 13X9 pan for other meals during the week.