Italian Braised Chicken Thighs (High Protein, 30-Min Skillet Dinner)

I pulled this pan out of the oven on the hottest day of summer, poured myself the same Chianti I'd cooked with, and realized this one dish solved my whole "how do I eat healthy without feeling deprived" problem. High protein, one pan, done in half an hour.

Also try this high protein chicken dinners: Herb Roasted Chicken and Herb Roasted French Style Chicken.

I always seem to have a half-empty bottle of red wine sitting in my fridge door, the kind you open on a Tuesday and don't finish, and for years I felt weirdly guilty about it. Red wine oxidizes so much faster than white, so it really only has a day or two before it turns from "drinkable" to "cook with this immediately." That's actually how this Italian braised chicken thighs recipe came to be a weekly thing in my house - I started tossing that leftover wine into a skillet with chicken thighs, and something about the way it reduces down and thickens the tomato sauce is Magnifico! 🎉

The other thing I can't skip is olives, specifically the fancy ones from the olive bar at Food Bazaar, the kind that come stuffed with garlic or marinated in something herby I can never quite identify. Regular canned olives are fine, but the good ones hold their shape and their flavor even after 30 minutes in the oven, which matters here since this whole dinner is built to be a high-protein, one-pan meal you can actually make on a weeknight without it tasting like a diet. It's the kind of dinner that came out of my own fridge habits and my own grocery store detours, which is honestly why it tastes the way it does. Buon appetito to my high-protein, chicken loving self.

I promise that once you braise this chicken once, you will be tempted to do it again and again. You might also like Chicken Provencal and Authentic Italian Chicken Parmigiana.

Ingredients for Italian Braised Chicken

• Chicken - I often make this using skin-on bone-in chicken thighs, but boneless and skinless thighs would work as well! I browned them 4-5 minutes on each side and then removed and covered them in foil while I made the sauce and then added them back into the pan after letting the sauce simmer on med-low for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
• Olives - I used Kalamata and green onions, whole. They can also be chopped or cut in half. I also love to use 1 cup Kalamata olives and ¼ cp green olives (Divina brand).
• Red wine- I like to use Chianti, a classic Italian wine. It's very versatile and pairs well with chicken, but any medium bodied red wine, such as Merlot or Pinot Noir, will work. Lately, however, I started cooking with Barolo, even though it can be quite expensive wine. In my opinion Barolo adds such a dominant flavor to this stew, and the flavor still holds up despite cooking.
• Crushed tomatoes and tomato paste - 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes is perfect and 1 can of good quality San Marzano crushed tomatoes is what I always use! Feel free to adjust the amount according to your preferences. Tomato paste goes in first, I cook it down for a minute or two until it darkens slightly and smells almost caramelized; that little step concentrates the flavor before the wine and crushed tomatoes go in.
• Honey, Balsamic Vinegar, Salt and Pepper - I like to drizzle a bit of honey and add a splash of balsamic right after the tomato paste and this combination gives the sauce a rounder, more complex ristorante edge without tasting sweet. The balsamic cuts through the richness of the wine and tomatoes, and the honey balances it out so nothing tastes sharp. I add salt and pepper throughout the cooking process, not just at the end, because seasoning in layers is what makes the whole braise taste built, not bland.
• Olive oil and butter - for sautéing
• Garlic powder - for a different garlicky aspect! It's a staple in my pantry.
• Onions and Garlic - Red onion is my choice here, mostly because I love how it softens into the sauce without turning sweet the way yellow onion sometimes does. Garlic is non-optional in my kitchen - I use four cloves minimum, sometimes more depending on how big they are that week. There's something about garlic hitting hot olive oil, that first sfrigolio (the little sizzle you hear right when it goes in), that tells you the sauce is about to be good.

How to Make Italian Braised Chicken Thighs

Browning the Chicken

I season the chicken thighs generously with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then get my Staub skillet good and hot with olive oil and a little butter. The thighs go in skin-side down first and stay there for 4 to 5 minutes without moving them - that's how you get that deep golden color and crispy skin that holds up even after braising. Once they're browned on both sides, I pull them out and cover them loosely with foil while the sauce comes together in the same pan; all that browned bits stuck to the bottom (the fondo, if you want the fancy word for it) is where a lot of the flavor actually comes from.

Building the Braising Sauce

In that same skillet, the onions and garlic go in first, softening in the leftover fat until the kitchen starts smelling like something worth waiting for. Tomato paste and balsamic vinegar go in next, cooked down for a minute until it darkens slightly, then the wine goes in to deglaze everything, scraping up all that fondo from the bottom of the pan. Once it's bubbling, I stir in the crushed tomatoes, honey, and olives, and let it simmer for about four minutes just to bring everything together into one cohesive sauce.

The first time I made this, I pulled the wine straight out of the fridge and poured it into the pan cold, and the sauce seized up for a second - it went from smooth to slightly grainy right as it hit the hot tomato paste. Did I just ruin the whole pan? Turns out cold wine hitting a hot pan shocks the sauce before it has a chance to come together, so now I let the wine sit out for a few minutes while I'm browning the chicken, just enough to take the chill off before it goes in.

Oven Braising Time and Temperature

The chicken thighs go back into the skillet, nestled into the sauce so they're mostly submerged but the skin still peeks out. Into a 375°F oven it goes, uncovered, for about 30 minutes, then I turn the oven off completely and let the chicken sit in there for another 20 minutes - this resting period is what really lets the sauce thicken and the chicken finish absorbing all that wine and tomato flavor without drying out. By the time it comes out, the sauce has reduced into something glossy and rich, and the chicken practically falls apart with a fork.

What Is Braising (And Why It's Not Stewing)

Braising is really just two cooking steps stacked on top of each other. First you brown the meat hard and fast to build flavor on the surface, then you finish it low and slow in liquid, either on the stovetop or in the oven, until it turns tender. For this recipe, that liquid is a mix of red wine and crushed tomatoes, which does double duty as both the cooking medium and the base for the sauce you'll spoon over everything at the end.

People mix up braising and stewing all the time, but the difference comes down to how much liquid you're working with. Stewing submerges the meat completely, while braising only uses enough liquid to come partway up the sides, which is why the chicken skin stays above the sauce line and keeps some of that crispness from the browning step. You can braise on the stovetop in a covered pot, but I always finish mine in the oven - the heat surrounds the pan more evenly, and I don't have to babysit it or worry about the bottom scorching while I'm doing something else in the kitchen.

Nutrition: Protein, Calories, and Macros Per Serving

This is the part that actually makes this dinner worth putting into your protein rotation. One serving of these braised chicken thighs comes in around 38 grams of protein, thanks to bone-in, skin-on thighs, which hold onto more protein per piece than boneless cuts do. That's a meaningful chunk of your daily protein target from one pan, no protein powder or grilled chicken breast required.

What surprised me most when I actually ran the numbers is how satisfying this meal feels for how reasonable the calorie count stays - the sauce is doing a lot of the work here, since tomatoes and wine add richness without needing much added fat to feel indulgent. If you're trying to eat higher protein this winter without giving up sauce-forward, cook-it-in-one-pan comfort food, this is the dinner that convinced me it's possible to have both at the same time.

Exact per-serving nutrition (calories, protein, carbs, fat) is calculated in the recipe card below based on the specific ingredients and quantities used.

Frequently Asked Questions

What to serve braised chicken thighs with

• You can't go wrong serving Italian braised chicken with Garlic Butter Spaghetti or Homemade Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes.
• Lemon Garlic Chicken with Green Beans is also a nice touch.
• You can also serve this with a side of Avocado and Tomato Salad or Olive Garden Copycat Salad.

Leftovers and storage

• This Italian braised chicken will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days in a covered container.
• Reheat in a small saucepan over a low heat so the sauce doesn't break, and add a splash of red wine or chicken stock to revive the sauce if needed.
• Freeze individual portions in separate zip lock bags. Thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat in the microwave or on stove top

More delicious chicken recipes

• Baked Ranch Chicken
• Chicken and Asparagus
• Herb Roasted Chicken Thighs
• Jalapeño Peach Chicken