Spanish Baked Chicken Legs with Tomatoes and Green Olives Recipe
This dish is a lazy version of a Spanish lunch: chicken legs bake together with tomatoes, garlic, and green olives, creating an aromatic sauce. In Spain, similar dishes often go into the oven in the middle of the day so the family can sit down to a hot meal after work or school. The flavor is herby, slightly salty from the olives, and very homey.
Everything bakes together in one dish, so the chicken absorbs the flavors of tomatoes, garlic, olives, and rosemary, creating a rich sauce with minimal effort and washing up. It brings the feel of a simple Spanish family lunch to your kitchen.
Chef's tips
Use good-quality canned tomatoes and olives, as their flavor really carries the dish. If the chicken skin starts to brown too quickly, loosely cover the dish with foil and remove it for the last 10 minutes so the skin crisps up again.
How to serve
Serve straight from the baking dish placed in the middle of the table, with a bowl of rice or roasted potatoes on the side. Add a simple green salad with olive oil and lemon juice to balance the richness of the sauce.
Ingredients
- chicken legs - 4 pieces
- tomatoes canned - 400 g
- olives green, pitted - 80 g
- onion - 1 piece
- garlic - 4 cloves
- bell pepper - 1 piece
- rosemary - 2 sprigs
- olive oil - 2 tablespoons
- smoked paprika - 1 teaspoon
- salt
- black pepper freshly ground
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (top and bottom heat). Pat the chicken legs dry with paper towels and rub them lightly with salt and pepper on both sides.
- Peel the onion and slice it into thin wedges. Wash the bell pepper, remove the core and seeds, and cut it into strips. Peel the garlic and slice it into thin pieces.
- Pour the canned tomatoes into an ovenproof dish, then add the onion, bell pepper, garlic, olives, and smoked paprika. Mix so the vegetables are evenly coated in the sauce.
- Place the chicken legs on top, skin side up, pressing them lightly into the vegetables but keeping the skin exposed.
- Tuck the rosemary sprigs between the chicken legs. Drizzle everything with olive oil.
- Put the dish in the oven and bake for about 40–45 minutes, until the chicken is well cooked through and the skin is golden and crispy. Halfway through baking, you can spoon some of the sauce from the bottom of the dish over the tops of the legs.
- Towards the end of baking, check that the meat near the bone is no longer pink—you can cut into one leg with a knife. If needed, bake for another 5–10 minutes.
- After removing from the oven, let the dish rest for 5 minutes so the juices in the meat can settle. Serve the chicken legs with the vegetables and the tomato-olive sauce.
Storage
Resztki przechowuj w lodówce w szczelnym pojemniku do 3 dni lub zamroź do 2 miesięcy. Podgrzewaj w piekarniku pod przykryciem, żeby mięso nie wyschło; skórka może już nie być tak chrupiąca, ale smak pozostanie intensywny.
