Chicken baked with red onions, potatoes and rosemary

This the second recipe I tried from a new cookbook, Pure Simple Cooking by Diana Henry, and it truly was simple and very good. Henry is a food columnist and TV host in Britain so her recipes are somewhat derivative. This one, for instance, she credits to Antonio Carluccio. The book is another one of these lavishly illustrated Ten Speed Press productions, which I seem to be a sucker for.

The recipe calls for a chicken cut into 8 pieces or 8 thighs, rubbed with sea salt to crisp the skin (it really works!). I opted for the thighs, though since WF in its wisdom does not sell thighs with the skin on, I had to get the whole leg/thigh and cut them apart, but the price was great ($1.99/lb) and the chicken was delicious. The dark meat wonderfully absorbs the flavors from the aromatics, which consist of 2 red onions, each cut into 10 wedges; 2 bulbs garlic, separated into cloves but not peeled; and 5 sprigs of rosemary, a couple whole and the others stripped of their leaves. You put these ingredients with 1-1/4 lb of new potatoes into a roasting pan, salt and pepper, pour in 1/2 c olive oil and 2 Tbl balsamic vinegar, toss, and nestle chicken pieces into the vegetables and put into a 400-degree oven for 45 min.

Obviously it fills the house with a great smell. The onions caramelize and you can squeeze the roasted garlic out of its peel. I couldn't find new potatoes and the closest I could come (WF had nothing, of course) were some purple finger potatoes at Rodman's. They were just OK and I would like to do it again with new potatoes.

I had tried another recipe last week, roast cod with smoked bacon, that I wasn't crazy about. It seemed maybe a little too simple, given that this seems to be common pairing of ingredients. Pan-searing then baking the cod did not result in a very appetizing dish and it tasted like a collection of ingredients rather than a balanced dish. So we'll see how the other recipes go.