Chicken cacciatore

Back from a week in the sunshine in France with Grandma and Grandad, we needed some comfort food - Gateshead is freezing cold, rainy and windy.

Makes enough for 4. You'll need:

4 chicken thighs (skinned)
1 onion, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 large courgette, sliced
1 tin of chickpeas
1 tin of tomatoes
1 tablespoon of chopped rosemary
2 bay leaves
3 or 4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, chopped (or a small pack of lardons)
a splosh of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar

Depending on how much time you have, you can either leave the thighs whole (they'll take longer to cook this way), or take as much meat off the bones as you can (which gives you the added bonus of making chicken stock with the leftovers).

Stick the onion and garlic in a pan with the bacon and a little olive oil. Fry for 5 minutes or so, until the onion has turned translucent. Add the chopped rosemary and chicken, and fry for another 5 minutes or so, until the chicken has browned. Chuck in the tin of tomatoes, about half a tin of water (you could go the whole hog here and add wine instead), a splosh of balsamic vinegar the sugar and the bay leaves. Leave to simmer for 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked (this may well be nearer 30-40 minutes if you're using the chicken thighs whole).

Chuck in the courgette slices and chickpeas, and simmer for another 5 minutes, until the courgettes have softened and the chickpeas heated through. Season with lots of black pepper and a little salt, and you're done.

We ate this with some couscous and chopped coriander (and sneakily added a few dried chillies on the top).