A comforting, one-pan chicken dinner, perfect after a long day

What’s for Dinner?: Chicken thighs with red cabbage, brought to life with thyme and bacon


Trisha Lewis a chef and author of Trisha’s Transformation

This is a wonderful dish at this time of year. So easy to make and so comforting after a long day. The red cabbage is brought to life with the mixture of the thyme and red-wine vinegar.

Chicken thighs are a dark meat so they are higher in flavour, and if overcooked are a lot more forgiving than chicken breasts; they are so much tastier in my opinion. You can, of course, remove the skin if you want to reduce calories. If you wanted to double the recipe to make a few extra portions, this dish can be stored for three days and eaten for lunch or chopped up cold in a salad.

What you’ll need:

Serves 2
4 chicken thighs
Sea salt and black pepper
10ml olive oil
10g real butter
1 small red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
4 turkey rashers, chopped up
1 small head of red cabbage, shredded
500ml boiling water
3 chicken stock cubes
15g brown sugar
30g of wholegrain mustard
80ml red wine vinegar
5 sprigs of thyme
1 granny smith apple, shredded or finely sliced
Parsley, to garnish
Serve with boiled baby potatoes.

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How to cook it

1 Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius/gas mark 6. Heat a large ovenproof pan on a medium to high heat and add in your oil. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper.

2 Place the thighs skin-side down on the pan and leave for a few minutes, until the skin is caramelised and brown.

3 Remove from the pan and place aside for a moment. In the same, pan add in the butter. Add in the sliced onion, garlic, turkey rashers and sauté.

4 Add in the cabbage, water, stock cubes, sugar, mustard, red wine vinegar, thyme and shredded apple and give it a good stir.

5 Bring to the boil and place the chicken thighs back on top skin side up.

6 Place in the oven for 40 minutes with no cover on top.

7 Sprinkle the chopped parsley on top and serve with some boiled baby potatoes.