Greek Chicken with Penne Pasta

The past few weeks I've been dreaming of the Greek islands. That's my new fantasy dream vacation. To see the beautiful waters of the Mediterranean, feel the warm breezes, tour the ancient ruins...........It's now become my mental happy place. During the next few weeks, I'm planning on dusting off the Greek cookbooks and experimenting with some new recipes. I hope some of them involve grape leaves and maybe figs and dates. For starters, here's a fun, easy way to begin our journey.  This chicken dish is a common, one pot meal of the Greek islands. Orzo, elbow macaroni or ziti pastas are all acceptable for this dish.  Enjoy!

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 - 4 ½ pound cut up chicken
1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced
1/3 cup chopped oil packed sun-dried tomatoes
1 cinnamon stick
1 t. dried oregano
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes with juice
2 cups chicken stock
1 lb. penne pasta, cooked for 2 minutes and drained
½ cup coarsely grated Romano cheese

Preheat oven to 400º. In a Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium high heat and sauté the chicken in batches until golden brown on all sides. Set aside. Add the onion to the pot and sauté until soft. Add the sun dried tomatoes, cinnamon stick, oregano, pepper flakes and tomatoes. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and return to the Dutch oven. Add about ½ cup of stock or enough to come about two-thirds of the way up the chicken. Bring to a boil, cover and transfer to the oven.

Bake for 1 ½ hours or until the meat is very tender. Transfer the chicken to a platter. Meanwhile, bring the remaining 1 ½ cups stock to a simmer. Add the stock to the cooking liquid, stir in the pasta and bake, uncovered, for about 15 minutes or until most of the liquid has been absorbed, adding more stock if the pasta begins to dry out.

Place the chicken on top of the pasta and bake for another 10 minutes until the pasta is tender. Serve immediately, sprinkled with the cheese.