Glorious One-Pan Chicken and Artichokes

One night I was craving artichoke hearts, and decided to mess around with incorporating them in a chicken dish for dinner. Marinated artichoke hearts are light, tender, and punchy. They add a beautifully complex flavor to any dish because they have been marinated in a flavorful oil infused with tons of spices. I love them on salads and in pasta, and thought that their tangy flavor would be delicious in a Mediterranean inspired meal.

So I played around.. it’s been about 4 weeks and I think I’ve made it 13 times. We’ve had a lot of Chicken & Artichokes in my quest for the perfect recipe to share with you all. I know I’ve been a little MIA, but I wanted to get this right. I tried various methods, including brining the chicken, using bone-in thighs…I even toyed with baking them. In the end, I simplified it all to arrive at a simple, delicious meal that is even better the next day. The meat is juicy and flavorful, surrounded by tender veggies and smothered in a rich sauce that finishes with the perfect tangy kick. Here we go!

Tips:

Marinated Artichoke Hearts are expensive. One reason why I was able to cook this dish 13 times in the past month or so was because I purchased a 2-pack of large jars of marinated artichoke hearts from Costco for about $7. Since they keep for a long time, and can be used in a variety of dishes, it was a great buy!

What You Need: (Serves about 3-4)

6-8 boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 3 thighs/lb, so ~2 lbs)
1-1 ½ cups marinated artichoke hearts to your taste
½ medium yellow onion
1-2 tbsp capers, drained (to your taste)
Crap ton of washed organic baby spinach
Handful of fresh crimini or button mushrooms
About 5 small splashes of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
EVOO, salt, fresh ground pepper
Splash of Chardonnay - I used Yellow Tail brand

What To Do:

Start by prepping all your veggies. Wipe the mushrooms down gently with a damp paper towel. Chop them in quarters and place aside. Chop half a medium yellow onion into similar sized pieces. Wash and dry your spinach.
What I find helpful is to place all my ingredients on unused burners on my stove for easy access. See the picture above for my lil setup.
Generously salt and pepper the tops of the chicken thighs and let them sit for a few minutes.

In a large pan that has a lid, heat a small drizzle of EVOO on medium-high heat. Right before the oil starts to splatter, place the onions and mushrooms in the pan and sauté them with salt and pepper until they are nicely browned, and the onions are mainly translucent. You’ll want to cook them about ½ way, since they will be cooking longer later with the chicken. Once they’ve achieved a fair amount of color, place them aside in a bowl. If some onions remain in the pan, that’s alright. They will help with flavoring the chicken.
If your pan needs a little more oil, drizzle some into the pan and allow the pan to once again reach a high temp. We want to sear the outside of the chicken thighs and brown them immediately, so take a second and let the pan really heat back up.
With a pair of tongs, place each chicken thigh face down into the pan. As the chicken is browning off, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Splash 3-5 small splashes of Worcestershire sauce into the pan. This will add to the dimension of flavor, and also give a really nice brown crust on the chicken.
Brown the chicken for about 4 minutes before flipping the pieces over. You should start to see brown bits forming on the bottom of the pan. This is alll flavor, called “fond.” The secret to a great pan sauce is to deglaze the pan. This means to pour some cold liquid into a very hot pan to get up all the brown bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan.

At this point, your chicken is cooking away. Remove your pan from the heat momentarily and pour in a generous splash of Chardonnay. Return the pan to its high heat. The liquid will come up to boiling very quickly. Use a spoon or spatula to scrape up the fond as the liquid boils. As it disperses throughout the liquid, turn down the heat.
Add the mushrooms and onions back in to the pan, along with ½ of your drained capers. Distribute the artichoke hearts evenly along the pan. I like to add them along the edges next to the hot pan, so they can brown a bit.
Cover and cook on medium-low for about 15 minutes. Dump a crazy ton of spinach over the tops of the chicken, using your tongs to place the finished chicken thighs on top of all the spinach. Once the spinach wilts down into the pan sauce, which only takes about a minute, your meal is ready to be served. Dump the reserved capers on top of your finished dish.

Every which way I’ve cooked this, each time all I can say is glorious. It’s decadent without being awful for you; in fact, it is #GlutenFree and #Paleo!! I’ve served it over spiralized zucchini noodles and cauliflower rice.

The rich pan sauce doesn’t need any thickeners that weigh down the dish. It coats the juicy chicken beautifully, finished with briny capers. The complex flavor of the artichoke marinade provides the dish with a homeyness that seems way more difficult to prepare than it really is. The onions and mushrooms cook down and have soaked up all the delicious flavor from the pan. This dish is really one to try - perfect for a weeknight dinner or for when friends are over. On top of that, it’s all made in one pan! :)

Thanks for reading and sharing!