This recipe works wonders with the Valu-pak of frozen chicken thighs you bought last month at Costco (or was that me?). If you don’t have smoked paprika on hand, just use a twist of freshly ground black pepper. Or experiment with other combinations of spices in your pantry.

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 pounds chicken thighs and legs
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes (I recommend Muir Glen)
1 cup chicken stock
2 14-ounce cans chickpeas, drained

Place the flour in a Ziploc bag. Sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper and paprika and drop half in the flour. Seal the bag and shake until well coated. Remove, shake off any excess and transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining chicken. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan and brown well on all sides, in batches if necessary not to crowd, about 6 minutes total per batch. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add remaining 1/2 cup onion to Dutch oven and sauté 4-5 minutes or until tender and slightly browned. Pour in vinegar, scraping pan to loosen browned bits on the bottom, and cook 1 minute or until liquid evaporates.

Add tomatoes and chicken stock to pan. Stir in chickpeas and bring to a boil. Place chicken on top of chickpeas and sprinkle with an additional pinch of salt and paprika. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and chickpeas are tender.

Serves 8