A simple and tasty chicken dish, with all flavours of Christmas. Crispy chicken thighs smothered in a cranberry "gravy" with bursts of fresh cranberries and thyme.
Heat the oil in a large frying and add the chicken, skin side down and cook for 2 minutes. Turn the chicken thighs over and cook for a further 2 minutes.
2 tablespoon olive oil, 6 chicken thighs
Put the cranberry sauce, balsamic, maple syrup, garlic, stock and salt and pepper in to a blender and blend until smooth.
180 g cranberry sauce, 2 garlic cloves, 80 ml balsamic vinegar, 100 ml chicken stock, 2 tablespoon maple syrup, 1 pinch sea salt and black pepper
Pour half the sauce in to an ovenproof dish.
Add the chicken to the dish.
Top with the rest of the sauce, the fresh cranberries and thyme.
150 g fresh cranberries, 10 g fresh thyme
Video
Notes
You can use a chunky cranberry sauce with whole cranberries, or smooth one. It doesn't really matter because it is all going to be blended anyway.
Add some extra flavour with some grated orange zest added at the same time as the cranberry sauce.
We used chicken stock for this dish, however you could use vegetable stock instead. If you are making this for younger kids, then use a reduced salt stock.
You could swap the thyme for fresh rosemary instead.
Test the cranberry sauce before you add it to the dish. If it is still a little too tart for you, you could add some more maple syrup and blend it up again.
Use a meat thermometer to ensure that your chicken is cooked fully throughout.
You could skip the first steps of frying the chicken and just do it all in the oven. You wouldn't get as crispy skin and cooking times would vary.