A ridiculously simple throw-together dish with delicious, family-friendly results. Give it a try next time you don't want to think about what to make for dinner!
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- Yields:
- 8 serving(s)
- Prep Time:
- 15 mins
- Cook Time:
- 1 hr 30 mins
- Total Time:
- 1 hr 45 mins
Ingredients
- 8 whole Chicken Thighs, Bone-in, Skin-on
- Salt And Pepper
- 2 tbsp. Olive Oil
- 1 whole Large Onion, Diced
- 4 cloves Garlic, Minced
- 2 jars (24 Ounces Each) Marinara Sauce
- Fresh Basil, To Taste
- Parmesan Cheese, For Sprinkling
- 16 oz. weight Penne Or Rigatoni
Directions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Sprinkle chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown chicken thighs quickly on both sides until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Remove to a separate plate.
Pour off all but 1 tablespoon grease/oil. Add onions and garlic to pan and stir around to cook, about 2 to 3 minutes. Pour in marinara sauce and stir to heat. Add chicken thighs back into the sauce. Cover and place pan in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. (You may also simmer on the stovetop on the lowest heat possible.)
Cook the pasta according to package instructions Serve 1 chicken thigh with sauce over pasta, adding more marinara if needed. Sprinkle with Parmesan and serve. (For smaller children, you can cut the meat off the bone for them. Chicken is very tender!)
Viewer Warning: this recipe may be offensive to some who can not imagine cracking open a jar of ready-made marinara sauce.
For everyone else, this is a good, easy, throw-together meal that’s one of my go-to recipes on those nights I have absolutely nothing to make for dinner. In addition, it’s (embarrassingly) one of those recipes that makes my family say things like, “Oh, Mama…you are the best cook ever.” And I laugh, because…well, you’ll see why in a minute. And while the dish does require some oven (or crock pot) time to stew, the “throw-together” part of it truly is a cinch.
Before I continue, though, I have one thing to say. I’ve said it before, but I’ll continue to proclaim it from the rooftops:
Chicken thighs.
That’s all.
Chop up an onion.
Chop up some garlic.
Yes, I have a Guy Fieri knife. Who wants to know?
Next: chicken thighs. They’re good! So much better than breasts.
Like, night and day better.
Heat some olive oil in a large skillet or a dutch oven over medium-high heat.
Sprinkle the chicken thighs with salt and pepper, then place them into the pan to brown–just about 2 minutes or so per side.
Remove them to a clean plate…
Then thrown in the onions and garlic.
Stir them around, scraping the pan a bit, and let them cook about 2 to 3 minutes.
Your house smells really, really good right now.
Next up: grab this!
(Or you can pour crushed tomatoes and/or whole tomatoes and spices and sugar into the pan and cook it for a couple of hours to make your own marinara. But I didn’t want to work that hard.)
Pour the marinara right in.
Stir it around and heat it up…
Then transfer the chicken back into the pan.
If there are some juices on the plate on which the chicken sat, drizzle in a little. It’s about the flavor, man.
Now just put the lid on the pan and stick it in a 300 degree oven for a good hour, hour-and-a-half. The chicken will continue to cook in the sauce, and basically, will be falling off the bone by the time it’s all over.
And that’s the difference between chicken breasts and chicken thighs.
Here ’tis! The sauce is rich and delicious, the chicken perfect.
Then just throw some pasta onto each plate and serve up a chicken thigh (or two) with plenty of sauce.
Fresh basil is good, too. You’d obviously want to chop it up and sprinkle it all over the top, but I wanted to act like I was all fancy.
Shave off some pieces of Parmesan…
And sprinkle it on. Serve this with a loaf of warm, crusty bread and your family will be singing your praises as the best chef in the whole entire world.
And you’ll chuckle at the irony of it all.
