Italian Baked Chicken Breast with White Beans
We first had this dish while visiting friends in Zürich and were hooked. It does not need a lot of ingredients and is fairly simple and quick to make. It’s a low key dinner dish that will make your guests come back for more. This dish goes well with black Italian rice or couscous.
Ingredients:
(makes 4 servings)
2 chicken breasts (around 400g)
2 x 400g cans of white beans, rinsed
1 x 400g can of diced tomatoes
1.5 onions, diced
2 tsp of harissa paste (optional for the chili kick)
100g bacon pieces
100ml white wine
1 tsp chicken stock powder
2 tsp dried Italian herbs (basil, oregano…)
Freshly chopped parsley
4 sprigs of thyme
Olive oil
Special Equipment Needed:
Oven safe baking dish
Aluminium foil
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 175°C on conventional heat.
In a pan, fry the bacon over medium heat until crispy. Remove the bacon and place it into the baking dish.
Depending on how much fat rendered out from the bacon, add some olive oil to the same pan over medium high heat. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Sear the chicken breasts in the pan and then place them in the baking dish.
In the same pan, add some more olive oil and the fry the diced onions over medium high heat until translucent. Season with salt.
Pour in the can of diced tomatoes and add the white wine and chicken stock powder. Stir and let simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the harissa and white beans, reduce the heat and let simmer for another 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle in the dried Italian herbs and freshly chopped parsley.
In the baking dish, place the thyme sprigs around the chicken breasts. Pour the tomato bean sauce in the baking dish to cover the chicken breast. Drizzle with olive oil.
Cover the baking dish with aluminium foil. This prevents the chicken from drying out.
Poke some holes into the foil so that steam can escape to slightly reduce the sauce. Bake in the oven for 20-30 min (or until the thickest part of the chicken breast reaches 75°C).
Buon Appetito!
