Chicken with Tomatos and Chiles

This is a wonderful use of chicken legs and thighs if you do really like those pieces of the chicken. It also allows you to be more economical when purchasing chicken because you can buy whole chickens on sale and then cut them into pieces and bone them yourself.  Divide the pieces up into a bag each for light and dark meat.  Freeze the bags and then all you have to do is thaw them in the refrigerator and it is ready to go. Try to leave the skin on the meat, even if you do not like the taste or want the fat.  It helps with the cooking and keeps the chicken from drying out.
Another technique this recipe calls for is brining.  When people think of brining, they think turkey.  But it works well on dark meat and removes some of the stronger flavors. 
To make a brine for this recipe, use a 1/4 of salt in 4 cups of water and dissolve salt.  Place thawed, boned chicken in a large bowl, pour the brining solution over the chicken.  Cover and refrigerate at least one hour and up to six. 
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees when you are ready to start cooking

1 pound of boned chicken, brined
salt, pepper, and garlic powder
1 14.5 ounce of tomatoes with green chiles
1 bulb of garlic, peeled and very thinly sliced
2 Tablespoons of oil
1/2 cup of Cilantro, chopped and divided
 1/4 cup dry white wine or chicken broth

Place oil in an oven safe pan, turn heat to low and add sliced garlic.  Let it sweat and turn brown on the edges, do not let it burn.  remove from heat and set aside
Remove the chicken from the brine solution, pat dry with paper towels.  On the skin side, season with salt (yes, more salt) and pepper.  On the other side season with pepper and garlic powder.
Heat a grill, griddle or electric skillet to 350 degrees.  The surface needs to be extremely hot.  Place the chicken, skin side down, on the grill, griddle or skillet and then weight it down with something.  (I use 2 large cast  iron skillets. One is large enough to cover the entire surface of the chicken and the other is is heavy enough to provide the weight. I place the larger one directly one the chicken and then place the heavier one inside the larger one.)  Let brown on that side, about 3 minutes and turn chicken to the other side and weight it down, again.  (Do not worry, you are going to finish in the oven)  Cook that side until it is browned, too.
While you are waiting for the Chicken to brown, return the pan with the garlic and oil to low-medium heat, add tomatoes with chiles and wine. Let it reduce.  When the chicken has finished browning, add 1/2 of the chopped cilantro and stir. Place browned chicken into the garlic and  tomato reduction.  Cover and place in oven.  Cook in oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and arrange chicken on a serving platter and top with sauce and the rest of the cilantro.

Enjoy!

Deloris