Today’s grape-y goodness is sponsored by Grapes from California! Doesn’t get much better than those sweet, bursty California-grown grapes.
Just please take note of what you’re seeing in the picture above.
Golden brown skillet chicken ️ with a red wine pan sauce ️ on a layer of golden caramelized onions ️ with fistfuls of happy red California GRAPES ️. What to even say right now? It’s so regular + easy and so fancy + pretty all at the same time. The perfect dinner for company!
This recipe was inspired by one of my favorite-est ways to make chicken, which is this Skillet Chicken with Bacon and White Wine Sauce situation. But there are a few key differences – with this updated version, I’m going for a few warmer, cozier herbs, swapping white wine for red, and switching out the bacon for grapes. I mean, if you wanted to still add the bacon, I definitely wouldn’t be mad about it and I might even awkwardly ask you if I could come for dinner to try a little bite or five hundred. Prettyplease.
But really, whatever you decide about the bacon will be just fine because there’s only one star in this show and its name starts with a big ol G.
(oh hai derr GRAPES.)
Buckle up – I’m going to get geeky on you for a second. Did you know that 99% of fresh table grapes that are commercially grown in the US are grown in California? Yet another reason to love to that sunny paradise land.
And bonus: whether you like red, green, or black grapes, all of them are a natural source of antioxidants and other heart-healthy polyphenols. Health vibes, people. Health vibes.
Side note: in case you are wondering how polyphenols became a part of my vocabulary, I have my experience teaching a fourth grade nutrition unit to thank for that. Seriously, some of the random fourth grade tidbits I know about elephant seals and volcanoes and the science of rocks… you just never know when you might need those little nuggets of info. I mean, maybe you’ll use that word polyphenols someday when you become a food blogger. Who can say?
Obviously, for every lesson in that unit, I’d make all my students pronounce polyphenols in unison so we could all feel really smart together. Wanna try it? Everybody together on three… one, tw-
No, I’m annoying. I’ll stop.
Seriously now: Vitamin K. Antioxidants and other polyphenols. 90 calories. TASTY BITES OF JUICY GOODNESS.
The list of benefits is just straight up !
Let’s talk about the GCO (grape cooking options).
First option: you put them into the pan when it goes into the oven and they get roasty and soft. The good news about that is that they simmer in the sauce, so they’re juicy and delicious and they go together with everything on your plate really nicely when served with some kind of rice or quinoa as a side. It just works. The only potentially meh factor with this approach is that they lose some of their color. Which leads us to the second option.
Second option: you put them into the pan just during the last few minutes of baking so they retain their beautiful color and most of their crispiness. They stay beautiful and vibrant and crispy, just how we like grapes to be. If you’re into a more crisp grape, this is the way to do it.
What you see pictured in this post is the second option – I added them at the end of the baking time so they’d keep some nice color. But both Bjork and I were really impressed with how good the grapes were with the first option (roasty, soft, less color). I think we might have even preferred that in terms of taste and texture. It was like seeing grapes in a whole new light.
You know what you like, so you choose how it’s done. Either way, it’s going to be Yum City because GRAPES. Golden brown chicken. Caramelized onions. I mean, honestly. Really hard to go wrong.
Skillet Chicken with Grapes and Caramelized Onions
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Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes -
Yield: 4 servings
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Skillet Chicken with Grapes and Caramelized Onions – an easy recipe that makes a perfect pair for a crisp green salad, quinoa, or fresh bread!
Ingredients
For the Caramelized Onions
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
For the Chicken:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 2 lbs. chicken thighs with skin (4-5)
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 3/4 cup dry red wine
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 cups red California grapes
- parsley for topping
Instructions
- To caramelize the onions, heat the butter over medium low heat in a heavy ovenproof skillet. Add the onions cook for 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. When the onions are a deep golden color, remove from the pan and set aside.
- To make the chicken, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the flour, salt, chili powder, thyme, allspice, and black pepper. Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour mixture, shaking off the excess.
- In the same pan as the onions, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add each piece of chicken skin-side down and fry for a few minutes until golden brown; flip and cook for a few more minutes. Transfer to a plate (if it’s not fully cooked, that’s okay – it will finish in the oven – the idea here is just getting it browned on the outside).
- Turn the heat down and let the oil cool off a little bit. Add the wine – this will definitely bubble and sizzle! Add the broth and simmer until the mixture is thickened slightly. Add the onions and chicken to the pan (skin side up) and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, add the grapes, baste with the sauce, and bake for another 5-10 minutes. Top with parsley and serve with a green salad, bread, quinoa, rice, etc.
Notes
In the last picture, the chicken is drizzled with an olive oil balsamic type dressing that I used on our salad just to give it a little extra something. It was essentially 2 parts olive oil, 1 part balsamic, and 1 little spoonful of Dijon mustard.
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Prep Time: 15 mins
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Cook Time: 50 mins
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Category: Dinner
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Cuisine: American
Keywords: skillet chicken recipe, grape recipe, caramelized onions and chicken
Thank you again to today’s post sponsor, Grapes from California, which represents California’s amazing table grape growers that are responsible for growing that bag of delicious grapes that is sitting in my fridge right now.
The post Skillet Chicken with Grapes and Caramelized Onions appeared first on Pinch of Yum.