For the love of all things holy…MAKE THIS DISH. I made it this morning and you could smell it two houses down throughout the afternoon. It smells like delightful home-cooked comfort food. It smells like someone took the time to make you a dish you’ll never forget. It smells like the person who is cooking really cares about you. Can you tell that I’m obsessed with this dish? If not, I’m here to tell you I am utterly obsessed in every way. And I know we live in a time where people say they are obsessed with everything, but it’s the truth. If you’ll need me, I’ll be sipping on spoonfuls of this before dinner even starts tonight.
Speaking of dinner, last week I talked about diving into the French world of cooking and raising children. Well that has continued since I’ve now purchased a French cookbook and I’ve been starting every meal with a little starter salad before the main course. In our North American society, so many of us have gotten so far way from home cooking and taking our time at meals. I know I’m personally always looking for a dressing that will make meals faster or a way to cook the meat faster, but WHY. Yes, I have a million things I could be doing, like laundry or emails or cleaning, but food is far more important. Food gives us life, it brings us together, it evokes our senses, and it brings us joy. So why have we gotten so far away from something that is a huge freaking deal?
Well I’ve decided to stop that. No more rushing through meals, cooking the same thing over and over because it’s easy and fast. Instead, I’ve started planning out our meals for the week and I’ve started making a starter salad before every meal. I began doing this mostly because then we eat our salads while Avery has her meal, and then we eat our entree once she is in bed, so we don’t have to rush through our food before bath time and bed time. Now every night we have a salad and then some sort of entree and vegetable. It feels very romantic to me, like we are eating at some fancy restaurant. But the best part is that I made it and I get to feel proud of my creation. It’s a lovely experience. I highly recommend it. And on that note, it’s time to prep the salad for tonight’s dinner. Au revoir!
One Pan French Onion Chicken
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 23 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 38 minutes
- Yield: 4-5 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 3lbs chicken thighs, patted dry
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- hefty pinches of salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 6 sprigs of fresh thyme + more for garnish
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoons gluten free flour
- 16oz chicken bone broth
- 2oz gruyere cheese, grated
- flake salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- optional: cauliflower mash and toasted sourdough bread
Instructions
- Place a wide dutch oven over medium-high heat. Pat chicken dry with a paper towel and liberally coat both sides of chicken with salt. Once pan is hot, place 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the pan to coat. Add the chicken thighs, skin side down in the pan, making sure you don’t crowd the pan so the chicken sears instead of steams. Cook for about 6-7 minutes, until skin is golden and crispy then flip and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove chicken and set asides. Turn heat to medium-low.
- Add 2 tablespoons of butter along with the yellow onions and a few hefty pinches of salt. Add the fresh thyme and bay leaf. Cover with a lid and cook for about 1 hour, tossing every 10 minutes to keep from sticking the bottom of the pan. Keep heat low to ensure that the onions don’t brown too quickly or burn. Once sweet and caramelized, remove the bay leaf and thyme sprigs and add balsamic vinegar, and cook for another 3 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Sprinkle gluten free flour on top of the onions and then toss to combined. Pour bone broth on top, increase heat to medium, and bring to a low boil. Once the mixture has thickened, remove from heat and nestle the chicken thighs inside the thickened onion broth.
- Place in the oven to bake for 20 minutes. Once the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, turn the oven to broil then top the dish with grated gruyere cheese. Place back in the oven to broil for 3-4 minutes, until the cheese is golden and melted.
- Top dish with extra thyme, flake salt, and freshly cracked black pepper. You can eat this dish on it’s own OR make my cauliflower mash and toast up some sourdough bread in butter to serve alongside. No matter what, your tastebuds will be happy.
What I Used To Make This Recipe:
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Juli, this looks so good. Flagging to make this weekend!
LOVED this recipe. Tasted delish and was really simple to make. Thanks Juli!!
Definitely on my list for next week meals.
I make a basic vinaigrette that is olive oil, red wine vinegar and Dijon mustard as the base dressing. Then I add whatever herbs I want for a particular salad (ie herbs de Provence, Italian etc) and will add a little mayo if I want a creamy vinaigrette. You can also change the vinegar depending on if you want it lighter or more heavy.
Hey Juli! Thanks for the recipe! Do you recommend bone in, with skin chicken thighs? If so, could you update the ingredients list? Just came back from store with 3lbs of skinless thighs and realized it should have been with skin. Doh!
Hi Juli! I’d love to hear more about what kind of salads you make for your starter salads… it’s something I’ve thought about incorporating into my family’s meals too.
Can I use a cast iron skillet ?? I don’t have a wide ditch oven. I have a bigger sized cast iron though. Thanks
I used a cast iron and it turned out perfect!!
SO freaking good.
I made it with chicken breast because thats all I had at home and it was still AMAZING. This will definitely b e a staple for my fam of four… Thanks Juli!
This was DELICIOUS! A must try for sure.
A tad salty for our taste so I guess my pinches were a bit heavy handed. So good and will definitely make again.
This was delish. Used chicken breast and my spose loved it! Love the cheese too! Great mld choice! The bread is a must with the sauce!! Thx Juli! You rock!!!😁
I just made this today… it’s snowing and so cold outside. I would give it 6 stars if I could. Absolutely amazing!
This was really great and the French Onion base was delicious! It looked and tasted like a gourmet meal. The only critique, which was my fault, was using thigh filets instead of bone in.
Delicious! Made this for dinner and my family devoured. Even my 11 month old couldn’t get enough of the chicken. Bonus the onion mixture made plenty so I intend to have French onion soup for lunch this week.