Ratatouille Baked Chicken takes a classic French dish and turns it into a family-friendly comfort food dish loaded with veggies.
Ratatouille Baked Chicken
This one pot baked chicken and vegetable dish is a great way to utilize eggplants now that they are in your garden or at farmers’ markets. Ratatouille is typically a vegetarian dish, but I love how it’s combined with chicken here. If you want to go strictly meatless, you make want to try my Baked Ratatouille with Havarti or these Grilled Veggie Stacks with Mozzarella. You can also see more chicken recipes here.
This recipe is slightly adapted from Fix It with Food: More Than 125 Recipes to Address Autoimmune Issues and Inflammation: A Cookbook (affil link) by Michael Symon. In this cookbook, Superchef Michael Symon gives you tasty recipes with a 10-day “reset”. The book has 4 major sections with a “Fix” for each of the trigger areas: Dairy Free, Sugar Free, Flour Free, Meat Free.
I gravitated towards this dish, because I love how he elevated a French classic side dish to a main course, creating a mouthwatering stew that is perfect this time of year. By finishing the chicken in the stew, the vegetables are even more flavorful and the chicken stays moist, a win win!
In this chicken stew you will find onions, garlic, eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers and tomatoes, seasoned with fresh basil. Everything you can find at the farmers’ market right now! It’s dairy-free, gluten-free and perfect for Whole30 diets.
How To Make Ratatouille Baked Chicken
More Chicken Stew Recipes You Will Love
- Sofrito Chicken Stew
- Moroccan Chickpea and Turkey Stew
- Chicken and Andouille Sausage Stew
- Paprika Chicken Stew
- Jamaican Stew Chicken
Ratatouille Baked Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 8 bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 small yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 large eggplant, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme
- 2 medium zucchini, cut into ½-inch dice
- 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into ½-inch squares
- 5 vine-ripened tomatoes, cut into ½-inch dice
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Set a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and heat to shimmering.
- Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, season on all sides with salt and pepper, and set the chicken down in the pan. Cook, without moving, until nicely browned and the meat releases from the pan, about 5 minutes.
- Flip and continue cooking until the other side begins to brown, about 3 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate and set aside.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the remaining olive oil, onion, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften, about 3 minutes.
- Add the eggplant and another pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the eggplant begins to soften, about 5 minutes.
- Add the tomato paste and thyme and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
- Add the zucchini, bell pepper, tomatoes, another pinch of salt, and a twist of black pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until all of the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat.
- Partially submerge the chicken into the vegetables. Transfer the pot to the oven and cook, uncovered, until the thickest portion of the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 160°F, about 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes. Stir in the basil and serve.
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Recipes courtesy of Fix It with Food. Copyright © 2019 by Michael Symon and Douglas Trattner. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Easy and tasty
Could I leave the skin on the chicken and not use the oil?
So nice to have a one dish chicken with vegetables! My favorite vegetables, too! They are ones that do not get overcooked when it needs to warmed up for a meal. Pretty appearance all together for my guests! I did not peel the eggplant, used a bottled sauce that was slightly sweet/ sour rather that all tomato, and through in some sun dried tomatoes.
Can I bake this in my Ninja foodie pressure cooker. Or do a I need to cook this in a dutch oven. Which I don’t have.
Can’t wait to try this! Not a chicken thigh fan, what changes should I make to use bone-in breast instead?
Hi! I made this a few weeks ago and it’s truly wonderful. A hit with everyone! Just about to make it again and of course my oven has decided not to cooperate. Can I sauté the chicken and veggies and then put in my slow cooker?
This is a fantastic recipe. I have a bunch of sad produce in the crisper from the summer CSA and this was a great way to use it up. I love ratatouille but never feel fully satisfied with the veggies alone – always end up putting chicken sausage or turkey meatballs or something with it. The chicken thighs are a perfect compliment. This is a keeper!
OMG this was so delicious! I have to remember to make this more often. I think the I would increase the veggies if making 8 thighs. I did add more garlic. The flavor profile was excellent and I served it with some garlic bread!
I would like to sub out the eggplant – any ideas? – mushrooms, carrots, potatoes?
Any tips if you do not have a Dutch oven? Can I transfer everything to a sheet pan?
If you don’t have a dutch oven, do you have an oven-safe skillet? If not, I would follow the directions in a large pan or pot, then transfer to a 9×13 baking dish.