Chicken and olive casserole

Ingredients

olive oil spray
800g chicken breast on the bone, skin removed (See Notes, below)
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tins tomatoes
1½ cups (375ml) chicken stock
1 tsp dried sage
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp sugar
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 cup olives in brine (black or green or a mixture)
salt and pepper

Method

Heat a deep pan, spray with oil and brown chicken. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.

Add onions and garlic to the pan and sauté until tender. Add tomatoes, chicken stock, sage, thyme, sugar, balsamic vinegar and olives. Bring to the boil and simmer a couple of minutes.

Check the seasoning before returning chicken to the pan. Cover and simmer gently for 1 hour.

You don’t want the casserole to boil as it makes the chicken tough. Just a gentle bubble will give you lovely tender chicken.

Notes:

If you can’t find bone in chicken breast, buy 500g breast meat.
If you don’t have a pan that’s big enough, heat the oven to 150°C and bake in a covered casserole dish for 1½ hours.
Serve this beautiful Mediterranean beauty with whatever you like – rice, pasta, boiled potato, mashed potato or just a lovely green salad or warm veggies. Whatever you do, it’ll taste wonderful.
This recipe was written by Jay Rogers for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.