Ratatouille Baked Chicken

Ratatouille Baked Chicken takes a classic French dish and turns it into a family-friendly comfort food dish loaded with veggies.

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.

More Chicken Stew Recipes You Will Love

Ratatouille Baked Chicken

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 1 hr

Total Time: 1 hr 10 mins

Ratatouille Baked Chicken takes a classic French dish and turns it into a family-friendly comfort food dish loaded with veggies.

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

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.

Serving: 2thighs 3/4 cup veggies, Calories: 543kcal, Carbohydrates: 28.5g, Protein: 63.5g, Fat: 20g, Saturated Fat: 4.5g, Cholesterol: 280mg, Sodium: 340.5mg, Fiber: 9g, Sugar: 10g