Chicken with double roasted tomatoes and leeks

I spent the better part of last week eating my way through a refrigerator of leftovers from a dinner party I threw over the weekend.

So this weekend, it was time to try something new to rejuvenate my palate. I walked through the Manhattan Fruit and Vegetable Exchange on Saturday looking for some inspiration.

There were some nice fairly (I stress fairly) inexpensive leeks so I grabbed a bunch and then saw that grape tomatoes were on sale (2 pints for $2.99). The tomatoes looked decent and even though I stay away from them in the "off season" I thought some time in the oven would give them some depth of flavor.

I came home and after washing all the sand off the leeks, sliced them in chunks and filled a cookie sheet with the leeks, the grape tomatoes and some unwrapped cloves of garlic. Some olive oil spray, salt, pepper, garlic and thyme and my work was done. After a good half hour of roasting time the vegetables were tender and my apartment smelled amazing!

The next day, I preheated the oven while preheating my Le Cruset on the stove top. After seasoning some chicken breasts, I placed them in the Le Cruset to sear on both sides.

When that was complete, I added the leeks, tomatoes, garlic, some chicken stock, tomato paste as well as few large capers and olives for good measure. A light mix and it was off to the oven for about twenty minutes.

What came out was juicy chicken in a rich salty sauce. I probably added a bit too much kosher salt but that's nothing a little extra stock won't take care of when I reheat it for lunch this week; making what is going to be a very busy week at the office a little easier to handle.