Everyday crispy chicken with sweet tomatoes

This recipe takes just minutes to put together, then requires slow, gentle cooking. The reason you cook it for so long is to give you beautifully crisp skin as well as sticky, tender meat that should just fall away from the bone. Plus your tomatoes will have softened and gone all sticky and delicious.

serves 4

Ingredients

• • a large bunch of fresh basil
• • 2 large handfuls of mixed cherry and roma tomatoes
• • 1 bulb of garlic
• • 1 fresh large red chilli
• • 4 small chicken thighs, preferably free-range or organic, skin on and bone in
• • 4 small chicken drumsticks, preferably free-range or organic, skin on and bone in
• • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• • olive oil

To prepare your chicken

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• Pick the basil leaves and finely chop the stalks
• Halve the cherry tomatoes and cut the plum tomatoes into quarters
• Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled, and bash them slightly with the palm of your hand

To prepare your chicken

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• Deseed and finely chop the chilli – or leave the seeds in if you like things hot like I do
• Season your chicken pieces all over with salt and pepper

To cook your chicken

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• Preheat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4
• Put the chicken pieces into a snug-fitting baking dish in one layer
• Throw in all the basil leaves and stalks, then chuck in your tomatoes

To cook your chicken

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• Scatter the garlic cloves into the pan with the chopped chilli and drizzle with olive oil
• Mix around a bit, pushing the tomatoes underneath
• Cook in the hot oven for 1½ hours, turning the tomatoes halfway through, until the chicken skin is crisp and the meat falls off the bone

To serve your chicken

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• Squeeze the garlic out of the skins before serving
• Serve with a fresh green salad (see Simple green salad with French dressing)