Preheat your oven to 200 C / 400 F and place the wire rack at the lowest level of the oven.
Prepare the marinade for chicken – in a large bowl, add balsamic vinegar, honey, minced garlic, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Whisk everything well to prepare a uniform marinade.
Add the chicken pieces into the marinade and coat all over thoroughly. Let the chicken marinate for 30 minutes.
In another bowl, take the sweet potatoes. Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil, season them with salt and pepper and tip in the fresh thyme leaves. Give them a good mix.
Heat remaining olive oil in a skillet. Once the oil is hot, put the marinated chicken pieces skin side down. Do not overcrowd the pan as it may lead to steaming of chicken instead of searing and you won’t get the caramelization you are looking for. Sear the chicken pieces for 2 minutes on each side.
Grease a roasting tin with some non-stick cooking spray. Transfer the seared chicken pieces to the roasting tin keeping the skin side up.
Arrange the marinated sweet potatoes into the gaps trying to keep them in a single layer as much as possible. Tuck in some chopped up fennel bulb into remaining gaps.
Bake the chicken in the pre-heated oven for 45 minutes to an hour or until the chicken are completely cooked through and the internal temperature of the thickest part of meat reaches at least 165 F. Baste the chicken with its own released juice or with some olive oil after every 15 minutes.
Garnish with some fennel leaves and serve the yummilicious balsamic glazed chicken hot! Enjoy!
Recipe by Flavor Quotient at https://www.flavorquotient.com/2017/02/balsamic-glazed-chicken/