A fishy way to serve broiled chicken

Cut-up chicken is a boon to the hurried cook, and a new book makes cooking it easier, and with excellent results.

Dynamite Chicken (Ten Speed/penguin Random House, $29.99), by Brooklyn chef Tyler Kord, offers 60 recipes as well as invaluable tips about which parts of the bird are the most useful and how to handle them. You will find fewer recipes for boneless, skinless chicken breasts in this book because, Kord warns, they can turn dry and rubbery during cooking, whereas thighs, drumsticks and wings have bones that help retain moisture.

Fresh parts should be stored no more than two days, advises the chef, and frozen no longer than nine months, in a bag with no air in it. Count on five hours per pound and up to 48 hours to thaw, he writes.

Kord recommends buying the chicken whole and calculates it should provide three family meals. His tips about how to cut it into 10 parts are well illustrated.

Dynamite Chicken is the latest book from Food52, a New York-based online food store and recipe source run by former New York Times staffers Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. This recipe has a surprising seasoning: fish sauce.

BROILED CHICKEN THIGHS WITH PLUM TOMATOES AND GARLIC

Serves 4

2 pounds (900 g) bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs 2 teaspoons (10 ml) olive oil 2 teaspoons (10 ml) kosher salt

6 plum tomatoes, halved 10 garlic cloves, smashed 12 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1 1/2 teaspoons (7 ml) dried 1 tablespoon (15 ml) white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon (5 ml) fish sauce Crusty bread

Preheat oven to 400F (200C). In a roasting pan, toss chicken with oil and 1 1/2 teaspoons (7 ml) of the salt. Roast uncovered in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until chicken is browned but not darkened.

Remove pan from oven and heat broiler to high. Add tomatoes and garlic to roasted chicken, distributing each evenly. Spread thyme on top. Broil directly under the heat for four to eight minutes or until thyme sprigs are charred, chicken skin is a little charred, and tomatoes and garlic are starting to brown at the edges.

Remove pan from broiler and place chicken thighs on a plate and keep warm. Put tomatoes and garlic in a medium bowl, adding any pan drippings and, if using fresh thyme, discarding burned thyme.

Add vinegar, fish sauce and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon (2 ml) salt, tossing all together.

Serve chicken thighs with tomatoes, garlic and juices, with crusty bread on the side.

POSTMEDIA Broiled chicken thighs with plum tomatoes and garlic, from Dynamite Chicken by Tyler Kord.