Chicken with Peaches: A Summer One-Pan Meal with Bowers Farm Leg Quarters

I’m a South Carolina girl who LOVES peaches, and I will probably never get over the fact that Georgia is known as The Peach State when South Carolina actually produces more peaches.

I’m just saying.

Peaches are one of those foods that immediately feel like summer to me. And even better than peaches in general are peaches that come with a little bit of history. There is a farm in the Upstate where my family has gotten peaches since I was a kid. All these years later, it is still where we get our peaches. Yesterday my parents came to visit and brought me another batch, and I knew immediately that dinner needed to include them.

This recipe began with Julia’s Album recipe for "Chicken with Peaches — a 30-Minute One-Pan Meal", and it seemed like the perfect way to use some of those fresh South Carolina peaches.

Of course, I made a few changes. The biggest one is that instead of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, I used Bowers Farm bone-in, skin-on chicken leg quarters.

Which means this technically stopped being a 30-minute meal. But I’m perfectly okay with that.

Chicken, Peaches, Honey and Summer

The original recipe is beautifully simple: chicken seasoned with chili powder and Italian seasoning, fresh peaches, honey, lemon and butter all cooked in one cast-iron skillet.

For our version, I used two packs of Bowers Farm Chicken Leg Quarters, doubled the seasoning, olive oil and peaches, skipped the butter altogether, and used Wilde Rose Honey. The combination was SO good.

The peaches brought sweetness and unmistakable taste of summer. The lemon kept everything bright. The honey created this wonderful glaze over the chicken and peaches, and the chili powder and Italian seasoning added just enough savory warmth to balance it all out.

And, of course, using bone-in, skin-on chicken meant we got that crispy, seasoned chicken skin too.

Bowers Farm Chicken Leg Quarters with Peaches & Honey

Adapted from Julia’s Album’s Chicken with Peaches

Ingredients

For the Chicken:

• 2 packs Bowers Farm Bone-In, Skin-On Chicken Leg Quarters

• 1 teaspoon chili powder, or more to taste

• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

• Salt and pepper, to taste

• 4 tablespoons olive oil

For the Peaches:

• 4 medium yellow peaches, thoroughly washed, cored and sliced

• 3 tablespoons Wilde Rose Honey

• Juice from 1 whole lemon

• Fresh thyme, if desired

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

1. Prepare the chicken.

Pat the chicken leg quarters dry.

In a small bowl, combine the chili powder, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.

Season the leg quarters generously on both sides with the spice mixture.

And don't wash that seasoning bowl yet — we're going to use it again.

2. Sear the chicken.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat.

Add the olive oil, about 4 tbs, and then place the chicken leg quarters into the skillet.

Sear for approximately 5 minutes on each side.

You're not trying to completely cook the chicken at this point. You're just giving the outside a beautiful sear and getting that skin started.

Remove the chicken from the skillet and set it aside.

3. Give the peaches a head start.

Add the sliced peaches to the same cast-iron skillet and cook for about 1 minute.

You don't want to overcook them. They are going into the oven with the chicken, so this is really just enough time to let them start picking up some of those flavors from the skillet.

Remove the peaches and set them aside.

4. Bring everything together.

Place the chicken leg quarters back into the cast-iron skillet.

Add the peaches around, on top of, and between the chicken.

Now grab that same little bowl you used for your seasonings. There was still a little seasoning left behind in mine, so I added the 3 tablespoons of Wilde Rose Honey and the juice of one whole lemon directly to that bowl and mixed it together.

Nothing fancy. And one less dish to wash.

Pour the honey-lemon mixture over the chicken and peaches.

Wilde Rose has this new Hot Honey which I think this would be an incredible recipe to use that on - I'm a wuss when it comes to heat, but I think it would be amazing if that's your thing!

5. Finish it in the oven.

Transfer the entire cast-iron skillet to the oven and bake until the chicken is cooked through.

Because Bowers Farm leg quarters are bone-in and substantially larger than the boneless thighs used in the original 30-minute recipe, they will need additional cooking time in the oven.

Use a meat thermometer to make sure the thickest portion of the chicken has reached a safe internal temperature before serving. It took mine about 40 minutes.

Top with fresh thyme if you'd like, and serve straight from the skillet.

Eat What's in Season

One of my favorite things about this meal really has very little to do with the recipe itself.

It's where the ingredients came from. Those peaches weren't something I picked up without thinking about them at the grocery store. They came from a South Carolina farm my family has been visiting and supporting since I was a child.

The chicken was raised right here at Bowers Farm.

The honey came from Wilde Rose Honey.

The thyme came from our garden.

And that's what eating seasonally and supporting local agriculture can look like.

It doesn't always have to mean creating some elaborate farm-to-table dinner.

Sometimes it simply means asking:

What's growing right now?

What do I already have?

And how can I build dinner around it?

Right now in South Carolina, one of the answers is definitely peaches.

And when you combine fresh peaches with pasture-raised chicken, honey and lemon in one cast-iron skillet? That's a pretty great way to taste summer.

So grab yourself some Bowers Farm Chicken Leg Quarters, find some good South Carolina peaches while they're still here, and make this one before peach season disappears.

And Georgia?

You can keep the nickname.

We'll keep eating the peaches. 🍑

Leg Quarters

$12.00

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