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Community Corner

Queens Eats: Baked Chicken with Vidalia Onion Sauce

Try your hand at this recipe, which comes courtesy of Williams-Sonoma.

I think Julie Powell, fellow Queens resident and scribe responsible for “Julie & Julia,” said it best: when you have a day and nothing turns out the way that you expected, it’s nice to come home and follow a recipe and the dish turns out as planned.

I couldn’t agree more. For me, at least, cooking is one of life’s purely unadulterated forms of joy—it’s soothing yet active and, at the end, you have a tasty meal to nosh on. What could be better than that?

For this week’s installment of Queens Eats, I turned to a cookbook that I was recently given as a gift: Williams-Sonoma’s “New Flavors of Chicken.” This handy book groups recipes according to season to make use of seasonal ingredients, so I decided to make a chicken dish that’s perfect for the not-quite-warm weather of spring: Baked Chicken with Vidalia Onion sauce. Enjoy.

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Baked Chicken with Vidalia Onion Sauce (Source: Williams-Sonoma “New Flavors of Chicken”)

Ingredients

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2 tbps. extra virgin olive oil
bone-in, skin-on chicken breast halves (I used drumsticks for mine, because I prefer dark meat)
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
fresh rosemary, 1 tbsp. minced, plus more for garnish
2 large vidalia onions, quartered
¼ cup dry sherry
¾ cup low-sodium chicken broth or stock

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Lightly oil a flameproof roasting pan (if you don’t have on hand, a head-resistant casserole dish works as well).

2. Brush the skin of the chicken breast halves with 1 tbsp. of the oil. Season the breasts with 2 tsp. salt and ½ tsp. pepper, then sprinkle with the minced rosemary. Place the chicken, skin side up, in the center of the prepared pan. Place the onions in a bowl. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil and toss evenly to coat. Season the onions with ½ tsp. each salt and pepper and toss again. Place the onions around the edge of the roasting pan.

3. Roast, stirring the onions occasionally, until the chicken is golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast registers 170 F, about 35 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and tent with aluminum foil to keep warm. Raise the oven temperature to 475 F, and continue roasting the onions until they are very tender and deep beige, about 5 minutes longer.

4. Transfer the onions and any pan juices to a food processor. Heat the sherry and broth over medium-high heat, and bring to a boil, scraping the brown bits from the pan bottom. Boil until the liquid is reduced to ¾ cup, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

5. Process the onions, adding as much of the liquid from the roasting pan as needed to make a pourable sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Pour some of the sauce over the chicken and garnish with rosemary sprigs. Serve.

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