(15) Chicken Baked in White Wine Marinade

I never cook chicken breasts on the bone, but they were on sale this week, so I thought I'd live on the wild side! This smelled SO STRONG (hello onions!) going in the oven, but they came out very mild and tender. Oh and I baked them in my favorite Le Crueset, because it had a lid and because my chicken was ginormous and would never have all fit in an 11x7 pan! This was easy to prep the night before and pop into the oven!

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Chicken Baked in White Wine Marinade

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 breast half)
Source: Cooking Light Magazine, July 2008

Baking the chicken with the marinade infuses it with more flavor. Bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts stay moist and succulent; the skin is discarded after baking. For the prettiest presentation, remove meat from the bones, and slice thinly across the grain.

1 cup dry white wine
1 cup vertically sliced onion
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
4 (8-ounce) bone-in chicken breast halves
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag; seal. Marinate in refrigerator 4 hours or up to 24 hours, turning occasionally.

2. Preheat oven to 375°.

3. Place the chicken, skin side up, in an 11 x 7–inch baking dish. Pour marinade over chicken. Cover and bake at 375° for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 40 minutes or until done. Transfer chicken to a platter. Discard skin, bay leaf, and marinade. Sprinkle chicken evenly with salt and pepper.

Wine note: Chicken breasts such as these have a delicate flavor and work best with light wines. In summer, serve them with a cold pinot grigio, which is generally made without oak and is lighter and fresher than chardonnay. Try the snappy Tamás Estates Pinot Grigio from Monterey County, California and Livermore Valley. The 2006 is $12. —Karen MacNeil

CALORIES 184 (19% from fat); FAT 3.8g (sat 1.1g,mono 1.3g,poly 0.8g); IRON 1.3mg; CHOLESTEROL 90mg; CALCIUM 24mg; CARBOHYDRATE 2.1g; SODIUM 377mg; PROTEIN 33.2g; FIBER 0.3g