Jamie Oliver's Crispy and Sticky Chicken Thighs with Squashed New Potatoes and Tomatoes

I forgot to post this a few weeks ago, but it's worth the lateness. This was the second time I'd made this recipe and it doesn't disappoint. It takes about an hour to an hour and a half from start to finish. When I first discovered Jamie Oliver, I watched his Oliver's Twist TV show, and thought he was a weirdo. Now that I've watched more of his recent work, read a lot of his recipes, and seen his work with the Food Revolution, I still think he's a weirdo, but I have to admit he's got style. I think his combination of British food, plus healthy food, plus just his own personal taste makes for some of the most unique food I've ever seen. I totally recommend checking out his other stuff, and his philosophies on healthy eating and humane treatment of animals.

The herb Jamie Oliver uses in his original recipe is just fresh oregano, but I rarely have that on hand, so I've used Italian seasoning and parsley. And this time, I even added some leftover rosemary--fit it just right.

You can see Jamie's original recipe here; I haven't made changes very much at all. Mostly just to the seasonings.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED:

1 3/4 pounds new potatoes, scrubbed

Kosher/sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

8-12 boned chicken thighs, skin on (preferably free-range or organic)

Olive oil

Kosher salt and pepper

1 1/4 pounds cherry tomatoes (or smaller)

1 bunch of fresh oregano (or subsitute dried seasonings; oregano, thyme, Italian seasonings, rosemary)

More olive oil

Red wine vinegar

HERE'S WHAT YOU DO:

Boil the potatoes in salted water. Easy peasy.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut up your chicken thighs into 3 pieces and put them in a boil. Add salt, pepper, and oil, and use your hands to combine it all together.

Heat a large cast-iron frying pan over medium high heat. Ideally, this would be cast-iron so you could transfer it straight to the oven, but if you have to transfer to a baking dish, it won't be the end of the world. Place the chicken thighs skin side down in the pan to start. Cook for 10 minutes, tossing, until almost cooked.

While the chicken is cooking, poke all your tomatoes with a knife, and put them in a bowl covered with boiling water. Let sit for a few minutes, and drain. When they've cooled off, you should be able to squeeze/pinch off the skins. This step isn't necessary, but when the flesh is exposed during cooking, the sweetness adds to the cooking a lot more. Jamie says, "They will become lovely and sweet when cooked, and their intense flavor will infuse the potatoes." How can you pass that up?

"Bash" the oregano Jamie style (or just mince it). Drain your potatoes and lightly crush each one with tongs or your thumb (burns your thumb though). Combine the potatoes, chicken and tomatoes in the cast-iron pan, or a baking dish. Coat with oil, seasonings, and red wine vinegar. Jamie says to spread everything out into one layer, but I've done it both ways--you can heap it all up into two layers, or one; it's good both ways. Bake for 40 minutes.