I had no intention of making roast chicken with onions. I had no idea it would turn into a kind of onion confit after it emerged from the oven. But hey — like so many good things, this dish was born almost by accident.
This week I got a delivery of fruits and vegetables, and it came with a lot of onions that I had to add to the ones already sitting in my basket. So I decided to fry them all up and make onion soup. At the very last second, I remembered I had bought chicken that morning and didn’t have the energy to make the recipe I had planned, so it went into the pot — and just like that, lunch was born.
The confit effect happened after the dish came out of the oven, by the way. The roast chicken released its fats, the onions gave off their own caramelized, sweet, flavorful juices, and an incredible sauce formed from the combination. The bubbling in the oven magically softened the onions. Like garlic cloves after they’re cooked in olive oil.
After I ate some chicken, I realized there was so much amazing sauce and it would be a shame not to use it. So I threw in some coarse bulgur and closed the pot, letting the liquid do its thing.
It turned into an incredible lunch – very tender chicken, bulgur that felt like it had spent the whole night in the oven, and the onions? Just wait until you taste them.
A few small things before we begin:
– It really helps to have a pot that can go into the oven. That simply means a wide pot with handles that aren’t plastic. You don’t need the lid in the oven, so if the lid isn’t oven-safe, that’s still perfectly fine.
– You do not have to add the bulgur, or you could replace it with something else (options below).
– What you do need is patience. This dish is mostly onions and chicken. Lots and lots of onions that need time to caramelize and turn golden. Yes, there are 7 onions here. You can even use more if there’s room in the pot. Keep in mind they shrink a lot after sautéing and roasting.
