Back in the day, I worked in a pizza shop.  My boss (Sal) was Sicilian, and I learned a lot while I worked there.  (I mean about cooking, not about taking verbal abuse…)  It seems that this might actually be called Pollo alla Calabrese, but he never called it that.  Then again, he wasn’t big on names for things.

It’s a very basic recipe, that mainly involves placing the ingredients together in a pan and roasting them.  The result is chicken that falls off of the bone and crispy potatoes in a kind of garlic and tomato sauce.

Ingredients:

• Chicken Thighs and Legs, enough to fill the bottom of the pan you’re using
• 5 or 6 small potatoes, quartered
• 1/2 an onion, chopped
• 5 or 6 plum tomatoes chopped into largish chunks, or 2 cups of marinara sauce
• 5 or 6 cloves of garlic, crushed
• Olive Oil
• Oregano
• Basil
• Pepper
• Salt

Splash some olive oil into the bottom of your baking dish or pan.  Place the chicken into the dish, in one layer.  I flip them over in the oil to coat them a bit.  Place the crushed garlic cloves into the nooks and crannies between the chicken pieces. 

Evenly distribute the potatoes and tomatoes across the dish.

This is where you add your herbs.  You can use anything you prefer, really.  I went with oregano, basil, salt, and black pepper.  I used dried herbs, don’t have a cow.  The key to dried herbs is making sure they are fresh.  You don’t want to use three year old dried oregano…you may as well use pencil shavings. 

Add another splash of olive oil, if you like.  Now cover the whole thing with aluminum foil, and put it into your oven, preheated to 400°F.  After an hour, remove the foil and let it cook another 20 minutes or so.  Keep an eye on it, you’re going for some nice browning on the chicken and veggies.

The tomatoes with a bit of the garlic-infused oil are perfect on some crusty bread.  I don’t think that there’s a fancy way to serve this–just put a helping onto a plate and dig in.  Or eat it straight out of the baking dish…not that I would know anything about that.