Harissa Chicken with Olives and White Beans

As regular readers will know, I'm a big fan of roasting a whole meal in one tray. It saves on the washing up but more importantly it allows all of the flavours to mingle and intensify together.

I love chicken thighs for a number of reasons - crispy skin, super juicy meat and you always get extra chicken fat leftover in the pan to save for your roast potatoes another day. In this recipe, I blended the sauce ingredients so they wrapped around the beans and olives but you could leave this step out for a more chunky stew.

Harissa Chicken with Olives and White Beans

Serves 2

1 x 400g tin tomatoes 

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp fennel seeds 

2 tbsp harissa 

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

4 chicken thighs 

1 x 400g tin white beans, drained and rinsed (I used butterbeans)

100g mixed olives, pitted 

small bunch basil leaves, finely chopped

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Using a blender, blitz the tomatoes with the garlic, fennel seeds, harissa and vinegars to make a smooth sauce. Season well with salt and pepper and set aside. 

Season the chicken thighs all over with salt and pepper. Place in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat, skin side down. Fry the thighs for 5 minutes on each side or until golden. Remove to a plate. 

Put the tomato sauce into an ovenproof dish or baking tray. Tip in the beans and olives and give it a good stir. Nestle the chicken thighs, skin-side up, into the sauce then put into the oven for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the bean stew has reduced. Scatter over the chopped basil leaves to serve.