Sometimes recipes come from inspirational chefs, others from an exotic influence and sometimes they are born from a simple need to cook from the only ingredients you have in the store cupboard. The latter is how we came up with this recipe.

Our chicken cooked in tomatoes uses chicken – we always keep some in the deep freeze, a few cans of tomatoes and pulses, and a few essential flavours. We used a can of chickpeas, but butterbeans or any other canned bean would be absolutely fine here. The use of beans here makes the sauce more stew like and avoids the need to cook any pasta to go with this. Although saying that, we have eaten leftovers with a portion of pasta. If you have any green veg in the bottom of the fridge that is on the verge of wilting, wash and trim (as required) there’s no harm in throwing this in the pot for the last 10 minutes of cooking too.

The recipe serves 2 people comfortably. You could double the number of chicken pieces (to 8) and add one further can of beans to feed 4 hungry mouths.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken thighs – on bone and with skin on
• 2 cans chopped tomatoes
• Olive oil
• 1 glass of white wine
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 red onion
• 1 can chickpeas
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
• Truffle oil – optional

Recipe:

1. Add a little olive oil to a shallow casserole dish, and warm over a medium heat. Add the chicken skin side down and fry for 5 minutes, until the skin turns golden. Turn and cook on the other side for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the pan once cooked. 
2. Meanwhile finely chop the onion and garlic, and open and rinse the chickpeas.
3. The chicken skin should have rendered some fat, and left a few sticky bits (flavour) at the bottom of the pan. Add a small glass of white wine to de-glaze and leave to bubble away for a few minutes until the alcohol has evaporated. Then add the chopped onion and garlic and fry gently for 3 – 4 minutes, or until soft.
4. Add the chickpeas, canned tomatoes, and a further half a tin of extra water used to swill out the tomato tins, and leave until just bubbling.
5. Then add the chicken back to the pan, adorn with fresh thyme and cook for 20 – 25 minutes with a lid on over a low heat.
6. Drizzle with a few drops of truffle just before serving.