Sheet Pan Tarragon Chicken with Sherry Vinegar Onions

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My favorite things all contain copious amounts of vinegar: Claussen Hearty Garlic Pickles; Gulden's Spicy Brown Mustard; Heinz Ketchup; Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce and Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce. If any of those hit a spark for you, then you would also like foods flavored with vinegar.

This Melissa Clark recipe is very special as it creates it's own flavor ecosystem in your oven. The chicken is marinated in tarragon and garlic, then quickly roasted over a bed of onions. While the chicken pieces roast, the fat renders and coats the onions...which in turn steam and the vapors flavor the chicken. And when it's done? The chicken is served. As are the roasted onions with a drizzle of sublime sherry vinegar.

[Note: If you prefer white meat, swap out the thighs with bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts.]


Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped fresh tarragon leaves, plus 4 sprigs
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
2 large onions, peeled and sliced
4 thyme sprigs
Sherry vinegar, to taste

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Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir together tarragon, garlic, oil, salt and pepper. Add chicken thighs and toss to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 6 hours, and up to overnight.
2. Heat oven to 425º. Spread onions out on a rimmed baking sheet, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss well. Clear spaces on the baking pan, then place chicken pieces in the cleared spaces so the onions surround the chicken. Strew thyme and tarragon sprigs over onions and chicken.
3. Roast, tossing the onions after 15 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and the onions tender, 25 to 35 minutes. If the chicken skin or onions are not as brown as you’d like, run pan under the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes at the end of cooking.
4. Place chicken on a platter. Drizzle onions with sherry vinegar and more salt and pepper if needed. Spoon onions around the chicken and serve.

Wine Pairing

If you prefer whites, an oaky Chardonnay.

If reds are your thing, a big fruity Sangiovese.

Grogs and Goldie, 1956