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Hello! I just made this last night and my boyfriend literally said it was one of the best meals i’ve made! Just writing to say this is an awesome recipe and thank you!
p.s. the grapes made a great touch…. I never thought about putting them in the oven
Today’s grape-y goodness is sponsored by Grapes from California! Doesn’t get much better than those sweet, bursty California-grown grapes.
Just please take note of what you’re seeing in the picture above.
Golden brown skillet chicken ✔️ with a red wine pan sauce ✔️ on a layer of golden caramelized onions ✔️ with fistfuls of happy red California GRAPES ✔️. What to even say right now? It’s so regular + easy and so fancy + pretty all at the same time. The perfect dinner for company!
This recipe was inspired by one of my favorite-est ways to make chicken, which is this Skillet Chicken with Bacon and White Wine Sauce situation. But there are a few key differences – with this updated version, I’m going for a few warmer, cozier herbs, swapping white wine for red, and switching out the bacon for grapes. I mean, if you wanted to still add the bacon, I definitely wouldn’t be mad about it and I might even awkwardly ask you if I could come for dinner to try a little bite or five hundred. Prettyplease.
But really, whatever you decide about the bacon will be just fine because there’s only one star in this show and its name starts with a big ol G. 😍
(oh hai derr GRAPES.)
Buckle up – I’m going to get geeky on you for a second. Did you know that 99% of fresh table grapes that are commercially grown in the US are grown in California? Yet another reason to love to that sunny paradise land.
And bonus: whether you like red, green, or black grapes, all of them are a natural source of antioxidants and other heart-healthy polyphenols. Health vibes, people. Health vibes. 💪
Side note: in case you are wondering how polyphenols became a part of my vocabulary, I have my experience teaching a fourth grade nutrition unit to thank for that. Seriously, some of the random fourth grade tidbits I know about elephant seals and volcanoes and the science of rocks… you just never know when you might need those little nuggets of info. I mean, maybe you’ll use that word polyphenols someday when you become a food blogger. Who can say?
Obviously, for every lesson in that unit, I’d make all my students pronounce polyphenols in unison so we could all feel really smart together. Wanna try it? Everybody together on three… one, tw-
No, I’m annoying. I’ll stop.
Seriously now: Vitamin K. Antioxidants and other polyphenols. 90 calories. TASTY BITES OF JUICY GOODNESS.
The list of benefits is just straight up 🍇🏆💯🍇🏆💯!
Let’s talk about the GCO (grape cooking options).
First option: you put them into the pan when it goes into the oven and they get roasty and soft. The good news about that is that they simmer in the sauce, so they’re juicy and delicious and they go together with everything on your plate really nicely when served with some kind of rice or quinoa as a side. It just works. The only potentially meh factor with this approach is that they lose some of their color. Which leads us to the second option.
Second option: you put them into the pan just during the last few minutes of baking so they retain their beautiful color and most of their crispiness. They stay beautiful and vibrant and crispy, just how we like grapes to be. If you’re into a more crisp grape, this is the way to do it.
What you see pictured in this post is the second option – I added them at the end of the baking time so they’d keep some nice color. But both Bjork and I were really impressed with how good the grapes were with the first option (roasty, soft, less color). I think we might have even preferred that in terms of taste and texture. It was like seeing grapes in a whole new light.
You know what you like, so you choose how it’s done. Either way, it’s going to be Yum City because GRAPES. Golden brown chicken. Caramelized onions. I mean, honestly. Really hard to go wrong.
Skillet Chicken with Grapes and Caramelized Onions
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
Skillet Chicken with Grapes and Caramelized Onions – an easy recipe that makes a perfect pair for a crisp green salad, quinoa, or fresh bread!
Ingredients
For the Caramelized Onions
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
For the Chicken:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon allspice
- 2 lbs. chicken thighs with skin (4-5)
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 3/4 cup dry red wine
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 cups red California grapes
- parsley for topping
Instructions
- To caramelize the onions, heat the butter over medium low heat in a heavy ovenproof skillet. Add the onions cook for 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. When the onions are a deep golden color, remove from the pan and set aside.
- To make the chicken, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the flour, salt, chili powder, thyme, allspice, and black pepper. Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour mixture, shaking off the excess.
- In the same pan as the onions, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add each piece of chicken skin-side down and fry for a few minutes until golden brown; flip and cook for a few more minutes. Transfer to a plate (if it’s not fully cooked, that’s okay – it will finish in the oven – the idea here is just getting it browned on the outside).
- Turn the heat down and let the oil cool off a little bit. Add the wine – this will definitely bubble and sizzle! Add the broth and simmer until the mixture is thickened slightly. Add the onions and chicken to the pan (skin side up) and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, add the grapes, baste with the sauce, and bake for another 5-10 minutes. Top with parsley and serve with a green salad, bread, quinoa, rice, etc.
Notes
In the last picture, the chicken is drizzled with an olive oil balsamic type dressing that I used on our salad just to give it a little extra something. It was essentially 2 parts olive oil, 1 part balsamic, and 1 little spoonful of Dijon mustard.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 50 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: skillet chicken recipe, grape recipe, caramelized onions and chicken
Thank you again to today’s post sponsor, Grapes from California, which represents California’s amazing table grape growers that are responsible for growing that bag of delicious grapes that is sitting in my fridge right now.👌
Chicken Grapes and caramelized onions …excited!!!
I love this recipe. I have to caramelize the onions in the skillet on my grill because the fumes bother my husband’s COPD. The flavor of the recipe are so good, it’s worth the extra work. I have one question. How long should I cook the chicken if I use boneless/skinless thighs?
Hi Judy! We haven’t tried this recipe with thighs, but I’m thinking the cook time would be the same!
I love this recipe! I’ve made it a number of times now and it’s always delicious. Also a great way to use up the grapes that don’t get eaten because they’ve sat too long in the fridge and/or have hard skins.
Hi, how much black pepper does this call for? It’s in the instructions but not in the ingredients list. Thanks.
About 1/4 teaspoon should be good!
This was a great date night meal to cook as a surprise Totally unexpected I followed direction couldn’t be easier Quinoa was perfect base Only thing I did different was I had some great Balsamic glaze from Trader Joe’s to finish Just as you suggested with the olive oil Balsamic and mustard T his was a winner winner Chicken and Grape Dinner Thanks Stephen
Awesome, Stephen. So glad you enjoyed it!
I made this tonight and it was delicious!! My husband is not a big fan of chicken thighs – do you have a recommendation for cooking this with chicken breasts (not my forte lol).
Thank you!!
I made this with several changes because of what I had on hand. It might have been better sticking closely to the recipe, but it came off phenomenally anyway so it was all good.
I used skinless boneless chicken thighs. I used rose wine but additionally I used balsamic vinegar to balance the rose because it’s a sweet wine. And water instead of chicken broth. I sprinkled more thyme and allspice over it all before it went into the oven. Ohhh, and the carmelized onions got piled on top of the chicken thighs more by accident than intention. But it worked great, kept the chicken moist and looked great coming out of the oven.
The sauce it made was rich and flavorful. The person I made it for has not been eating much for awhile. She couldn’t stop raving about how good it was. Thanks for the great recipe.
So happy to hear this, Ginny!
I will try this chicken recipe. It’s perfect for family dinner.
I know this recipe is 5 years old but I needed to find a recipe that used grapes, as our produce delivery during quarantine kept bringing grapes. I can’t even with this recipe; it’s insanely good! I make it with a side of couscous with cilantro and raisins and top it all with balsamic glaze (pre-made from the store). 3 of the 4 of us are on Weight Watchers and we all look forward to this dish weekly; we have it as a ‘cheat meal’ every Friday (even though it’s not high in points at all!). Please make this; it’s truly awesome!
Yay yay yay! A great way to use up those grapes you keep getting!
Made it. Loved it. And will definitely make it again. Thank you.
We tried this last night – it was delicious! I’ll definitely be making it again. Thanks!
This recipe actually turned out pretty tasty, easy, cheap, and cozy; however, I’d recommend cooking the onions for closer to 45 min to get them truly caramelized! I also subbed the flour with whole wheat flour. I used a boxed Cab Sauv that I got from Kroger for like $3 (and then shamelessly drank the rest of the lil carton), and I served it with an easy risotto on the side. Yum!
In the middle of making this, but I’m not seeing any measurement for the black pepper that is mentioned in the steps.
I had chicken and red grapes so I made this recipe. Delicious as all your recipes have been so far. Do you post nutritional or calorie information for you recipes. Counting calories 😋
Made this for dinner tonight, and… YUMMM! 3 of the 4 loved it – however, the 4th (hubby, for whom anything sweeter than 85% dark chocolate is cloying) declared it too sweet. Any idea if green grapes would work in this to decrease the sweetness level? Roasting definitely concentrated the sugars, based on my independent taste test of a whole bunch of non-roasted grapes while adding them to the pan… 🙂
Also, I combined options 1 and 2 (1 cup of grapes went in at the beginning, and the second cup went in with 10 minutes to go), so we could test which we liked better, and my crew really liked the combination of roasty and crunchier textures!
Sorry, but this was not very good. First off, there’s no balance-sweet, caramelized onions, sweet grapes-a good recipe is multidimensional. I ended up throwing this away.
Sorry to hear that – thanks for your feedback.
Made this last night for dinner guests. It was excellent. I used a Meritage red for the wine.
Awesome! Glad to hear it!
Hi, is there nutrition info for this recipe?
Absolutely delicious! I added the grapes when the skillet went into the oven and they soaked up the sauce…yum! True, they lost their pretty color, but the taste was well worth it! Very easy to make, too!
Glad you enjoyed it, JoAnn! 🙂
I cannot wait to try out your very well written recipe, i enjoy your writing style.
Do you use bone-in chicken thighs or boneless? Looking forward to trying this recipe.
I have made the skillet chicken with bacon and white wine sauce and now this. These are two recipes I will make over and over again. Total classics.
We love hearing that, Amber! Thanks!
Forgot to mention that the balsamic and dijon sauce was a great addition!
fantastic!
Hi Lindsay! Can you please recommend a substitute for the dry red wine? I don’t use wine in my cooking due to religious reasons and would appreciate some feedback!
Thanks so much!
Hi, Sana! You could use red wine vinegar instead. Otherwise, chicken (or beef, or vegetable) broth would likely work well. Hope that helps!
Oh this was so good! I would have liked to cook the grapes to the point where they might burst or become “squishy”. Any suggestions?
Hi, Susan! To get the grapes roasty and squishy, you want to add them into the pan before putting it in the oven. The heat from the oven should get them how you would like them!