I love this rustic, vegetable dish transporting me straight to 🇫🇷 La Provençe! All you need is a crusty bread to dig into it. I always make a big batch of ratatouille. I find the ratatouille to taste better the next day. Even when cold and straight outta the fridge (you know me). Ratatouille, a classic vegetable stew, reminds me of lazy days in the sunny vistas overlooking the twinkling Mediterranean Sea.
The first step is to dab the chicken legs dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper.
Next up, cut up the vegetables and aromatics. I like to salt my aubergines when I intend to fry them. This helps to release some extra moisture and hopefully to prevent them from absorbing too much oil when frying. For the aubergines, cut them into roughly 1cm cubes, salt em’, toss ‘em and leave in a colander. While it draws out excess liquid, you can continue to chop the rest of the vegetables.
Do the same treatment for the zucchini and the yellow peppers and try to keep the size consistent. I’ve also added yellow onion, some cloves of garlic, and herbs to chop.
Let’s fry all the elements starting with the chicken legs on high heat. Sear both sides of the chicken with some olive oil till the skin is golden.
By now the aubergines would have released some liquid (to be discarded) in the tray underneath. Just dab the aubergine of excess sweat and fry them up in the same pan. Toss ‘em quickly to coat them entirely with the olive oil. While I don’t want them fully-cooked, I do like the outside to have a slight bit of browning. Place into a large bowl. Add more olive oil to the pan and repeat the process with the zucchini and the peppers. Add salt for these as you toss them around in the pan. Once cooked, add them into the same bowl as the aubergine.
When all the vegetables have been fried, reduce the heat to medium and fry the onions with more olive oil. Let the onions sweat and brown slightly before adding the chopped garlic and a bay leaf. Fry for a couple more minutes before deglazing the pan with a can of chopped tomatoes and half a can of water. Toss in the chopped herbs, add salt and pepper and let this simmer for a few minutes.
Time to pour out all the vegetables into the tomato sauce! This is such an easy dish and well-worth the time to chop and fry everything one at a time. Toss the vegetables with the tomato sauce until they are coated nicely with this wonderful red sauce.
My initial plan was to put the chickens directly on top of the vegetables and bung the pan into my oven! BUT apparently my oven is not large enough or my pan’s handle is too long! 😭. So anyway, don’t panic. I’ve taken a small roasting tin and transferred the ratatouille over and place the chicken legs, skin side up, on top of it. Cover the tin with aluminium foil and bake in a slow oven for 30 minutes.
I’ve made this recipe for two persons but in a pan like this, you can easily fit in a couple more pieces of chicken to double the serving. Life hack: You can also make the ratatouille without the chicken and complete it with supermarket rotisserie chicken et voila – easy, tasty and fuss-free dinner is ready. You can spread the ratatouille on some bread, top with shredded cheese and have a yummy-licious, melty toast for breakfast the next day! So, moral of the story here is: always make a big batch of ratatouille! This dish couldn’t be easier and I hope you’ll give it a go. Bon appetit and selamat berbuka!
Simple Ratatouille Recipe with Chicken Leg
Ingredients
Olive oil, generously
2 medium yellow peppers
2 medium purple aubergine
1 large zucchini
1 large yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 bay leaf
2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tbsp fresh Italian parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper
2-4 pieces of chicken leg
Directions
- Preheat oven to 160˚C.
- Cut the aubergines into 1cm cubes and sprinkle 1 ½ tsp of salt. Let it sit for about 10 minutes to release some liquid before we fry them. In the meantime, cut the zucchini and yellow peppers to about the same size and chop up the onion and garlic.
- Pat dry and season the chicken legs with salt and pepper.
In a large frying pan, heat some olive oil on medium high heat. Preferably, use a pan that can be placed straight into the oven later. Sear the chicken legs, skin side down until golden brown for about 3-4 minutes and turn and fry the other side. Remove from heat and set aside. - Using the same pan, fry the vegetables with some salt (except aubergine, no addition of salt needed) one at a time until they are slightly brown and caramelised but not fully cooked. Add more olive oil as you go along.
- Reduce heat to medium and fry the onions until translucent for about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and bay leaf and fry for 3 more minutes. Deglaze the pan with ½ cup of water and a full can of chopped tomatoes. Add the fresh herbs such as thyme and Italian parsley. You could also use sweet basil. Season this sauce with salt and pepper and simmer for a few minutes. Add in all the fried vegetables and toss to combine.
- If your pan is suitable and can fit into the oven, place the chicken legs, skin side up on top of the vegetables and then cover pan with an oven-proof lid or aluminium foil and place into the oven. Otherwise transfer vegetables to a small roasting pan, followed by the chicken legs and cover with aluminium foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove aluminium foil and broil the chicken for a further 10 minutes until the chicken skin is brown and glistening. Make sure juices from the chicken run clear or if you are using a meat thermometer, that the internal meat temperature hits 74˚C. Larger chicken legs would require a longer cooking time.
- Serve with crusty bread or fluffy, butter rice. *chef’s kiss*
