I'm back with my first new dish of 2012

I have been thoroughly enjoying either eating out OR eating the same thing for a couple of nights in a row since New Year's and I don't feel one ounce of guilt about that. It was a long year and we all enjoyed our spaghetti and meatballs two nights in a row at last. We would have made it three nights but we ate it all in two to be honest but it was time to find my new dish of the week.

I bought some nice looking chicken breasts and was just going to do my greek roast chicken but the need to try out something new was nagging at me. I found this dish on bon appetite and was very intrigued by the spiced oil. I just ate at Pizzeria Libretto on The Danforth in Toronto where they have an addictive spiced chili oil that I basically drank out of the bottle and so flavoured, spicy oil is very much on my mind right now.  For some reason, I didn't like the idea of throwing the chick peas in there and was just going to just steal the oil/chicken breast part and that alone made this an obvious dish for my first of the new year. The fact that I would NEVER add chickpeas to this chicken was the very reason that I MUST add the chickpeas.

The oil is delicious and I think I can see myself making this to use on other dishes or as a beverage, I mean, condiment all the time. I mixed the tomatoes, chickpeas and cilantro with the oil prior to adding it to the roasting pan and it would have made a delicious cold dish on it's own, served raw just like that. Add some slivered red onion and maybe a bit of crumbled feta and you have yourself a really great salad for dinner next time.

In the end, this was DELICIOUS! All plates were licked clean and this is definitely going into the regular rotation. As frustrating and difficult as the year was, this recipe is the reason I am happy to devote a day a week to the cause because this is something I would have never made on my own. The very idea of the roasted chickpeas and tomato was just completely unappealing to me and it ended up being my favourite part.

roast chicken with chick peas, tomatoes and smoked paprika
from bon appetite

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, pressed

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

4 chicken breast halves, bone in and skin on

1 15-ounce can chickpeas , drained

1 350g container red and orange cherry tomatoes

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided

Preheat the oven to 450F.
Mix the olive oil with the garlic, paprika, cumin and dried crushed red pepper and set aside. I did this in the morning and let it sit all day. Whisk a generous tsp into the greek yogurt and set aside to serve with the finished dish.
Place the chicken on a large rimmed baking sheet or a roasting pan (I always use my huge cast iron skillet). Rub 2 tbls of the spicy oil mixture over the four chicken breasts. 


Mix together the remaining oil, the chick peas, the tomatoes and about 1/2 cup chopped cilantro and pour that around the chicken. Salt pepper the whole shebang.


Roast until the chicken is cooked through, anywhere from about 25 to 45 minutes, depending on the size of your breasts. To serve, sprinkle each portion of chicken and tomato/beans with a bit more cilantro and serve with the yogurt sauce.