Tag Archives: Braised Chicken

Provençal Chicken Thighs

I like to think of chicken as a blank canvas and that’s why I find it so exciting to work with. It has a mild flavour that can stand up to almost anything you combine it with.

I decided to go to the South of France this week with Chicken Provençal. Tomatoes, garlic, olives, and capers are the big flavour enhancers here. If you can find some cherry tomatoes on the vine, they make for a gorgeous presentation. I roasted them separately and put them on top of the finished dish. I find that it you cook them with the chicken, they break down too much. My olives of choice are Castelvetrano, which hail from Sicily and are worth seeking out. They are bright green with a meaty buttery flesh. Many specialty stores now stock them in their olive bars and you can find some good jarred ones.

I like to use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs as I think they have the most flavour. You could certainly use chicken breasts, but just make sure you don’t use boneless and skinless. You need the protection that the skin and bones provide, so that they don’t dry out.

Brown the chicken pieces well, to get a nice crispy skin. Then remove the chicken from the pan and add your flavouring ingredients. Garlic, thyme, red pepper flakes, olives and capers figure prominently in this version. I tucked in 2 peeled and quartered onions into the mix as well. Chicken stock and white wine go in next. Then place the chicken pieces back on top, making sure that the liquid only comes about halfway up the height of the chicken. You don’t want to submerge the chicken in liquid and ruin that crispy skin you worked so hard to achieve. Tuck it into the oven to finish cooking.

My twist on this classic dish is to create a “cream” sauce to finish the dish. But, I didn’t use any cream at all to create this velvety smooth sauce. Once the chicken is finished braising, strain the cooking liquid and puree it in the blender with the braised onions. It’s a trick I learned from Food 52 Genius recipes. It creates ta luscious creamy sauce that begs for some crusty bread to sop it up.

I highly suggest you use a digital thermometer to test when the chicken is done. This is my favourite thermometer. A bit of an investment but it lasts for years. It takes all the guess work out of cooking. Chicken breasts are done at 150°F and thighs are most tender if cooked to 195°F. I also use my instant read thermometer for baking bread and cakes. I get perfect results every time.

Braised Pomegranate Chicken with Israeli Couscous

Apologies to all who tried to access my blog over the last few days and were unable to connect. I’ve had some technological issues, something about exceeding the allowable CPU’s and plugins not properly updated. Sadly, my skill-set does not extend to understanding the issues much less fixing them. I turned my problem over to the talented Hillary Little, and put my talents to work on problems I can solve.

I spent the better part of the week perfecting pomegranate braised chicken. I already have one pomegranate chicken recipe on the blog, and while it’s very delicious, it’s been in my weekly dinner rotation for over 7 years now and I’m bored with it. The chicken is braised in a tomato based sauce, enhanced with some pomegranate molasses. I really wanted a more vibrant, pronounced pomegranate flavour.

In my quest to perfect pomegranate chicken, I made it several times this week. In round one, I loaded up on pomegranate molasses in the braising liquid. The finished sauce was way too bitter. Strike one. I also had the brilliant idea of making it a one pan dish and added the uncooked Israeli couscous to the pan, with the browned chicken and braising liquid.  By the time the chicken was done, the couscous was too mushy. Strike two.

In round three, I used less pomegranate molasses and added some white wine and chicken stock to round out the braising liquid. It was better than round one, but the pomegranate flavour was really muted. Strike three.

A quick web search revealed an epicurious.com recipe that cleverly used pomegranate juice as the braising liquid. Wish I’d thought of that! As the chicken braisedin the oven, the juice reduced down to a thick, rich, sweet-tart sauce. Exactly what I was trying to achieve.

I started with bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. I really wanted the extra flavour that braising on the bone would bring. Season the chicken liberally with salt and paprika and put it in the skillet on high heat, skin side down. Leave it alone for a good 5-8 minutes to give it a chance to really get brown. There’s flavour in the brown. 
Remove the chicken and pour off some of that rendered fat. Saute the onions until light brown. Cumin and cinnamon add great depth of flavour and ground pistachios add body and texture to the sauce.
 I used a combination of pomegranate juiceand chicken stock for the braising liquid. Vegetable stock or water would also be fine. 
Israeli couscous is the perfect starch to sop up all that braising liquid. I added tons of fresh mint and Italian parsley to give it a lively herbal note. Toasted chopped pistachios and pomegranate seeds added crunch. A squirt of lemon juice and big glug of extra virgin olive oil brought it all together.

Click here to print recipe for Braised Pomegranate-Pistachio Chicken Thighs.

Click here to print recipe for Israeli Couscous with Pomegranate and Pistachio.

 

 

 

 

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Spring Chicken

ready to eat When spring finally arrives, most people don’t normally turn to braising as a cooking method. But you guys don’t read this blog because I’m like most people. I promise I will hustle out to the BBQ very soon, but this braised spring chicken recipe really deserves your attention now. Mindy Fox created this recipe for epicurious.com. I adapted it slightly.

I decided on using boneless skinless thighs for this to hasten the cooking time. Feel free to use bone-in thighs or breasts if that’s how you roll. Just promise me you won’t select boneless breasts. They are not meant for braising. I treated the thighs to a generous seasoning of ground fennel seeds, paprika, salt and pepper.seasoning chickenAfter an initial browning, the thighs are simmered gently in white wine and chicken stock. The proper technique is to have the chicken pieces only halfway submerged in the braising liquid. Don’t drown them.

Leeks are thinly sliced and slowly sautéed until meltingly tender. Fat spears of asparagus and green peas pretty much shout “SPRING”. I used frozen peas because fresh are still a few weeks away for us here in Ottawa. Mini yellow, red and purple potatoes seemed like a good idea so I invited them to this spring fête as well!slicing leeksThe braising liquid gets reduced and treated to a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Scatter chopped dill and lemon zest over everything and celebrate spring.pouring on sauce 625 sq

Click here to print recipe for Spring Chicken.

ready to eat 2