White wine braised chicken
We eat a lot of chicken in this house - it's lean, a great source of protein and you can do so much with it. One of my favorite ways to prepare chicken is to braise it. If you've never braised a chicken, know this - the chicken will literally fall off the bone and it will taste like you labored for hours. Sure, braises take longer to cook than other recipes, but most of the time the pot sits in an oven, and you're free to taste test some wine. My lips are sealed; I won't tell your dinner party guests. You just sit back and let the praises come in.
The recipe calls for a mixture of mushrooms - I used half a pound of baby bellas and half a pound of the most delicious shiitake mushrooms I have ever had. Shortly before making this recipe, I had gone to a Seacoast Food Swap event and traded some of my spicy dill pickles for a bag of shiitakes from nearby Vernon Family Farm. I just can't say enough about these - if you're ever in the Seacoast area, be sure to stop by a local farmer's market and pick up some of these gems. I'm looking forward to this month's swap - maybe I'll end up with more mushrooms!
Another thing I loved about this dish was the leftovers. If you are cooking for two like moi, you're not likely to polish off four pounds of chicken in a sitting (Fred could probably do it though; especially if you gave him some sort of prize as an incentive). For round two, I deboned the chicken (aka breathed on it just a tad since it literally falls off), let it sit in the delicious sauce and served it over rice the next day. It was almost like a chicken and mushroom stew, which felt like a very different dish than the one I served the night before. Gotta love a dinner that doubles as leftovers that don't feel like leftovers. Here's my recipe:
White wine braised chicken
Adapted from Food & Wine
Time: About an hour and 45 minutes til dinner
Level: Easy
Ingredients
4 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken (mix of drumsticks and thighs)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup canola oil
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
2 medium shallots, chopped
1 1/2 cups chardonnay
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
4 thyme sprigs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound mixed mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Chopped chives, for garnish
Directions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. In a large, ovenproof casserole (I used my 9-quart Le Creuset), heat two tablespoons of canola oil. Cook the chicken in batches over moderately high heat, turning until all sides are browned; about 8 minutes per batch. Transfer the cooked chicken to a plate. When all the chicken is cooked, pour out the fat and wipe the casserole.
Heat the remaining two tablespoons of canola oil over moderate heat. Cook the carrot, celery, and shallots, stirring, for about 8 minutes. You want all the vegetables to be soft and lightly browned.
Add the wine and simmer for 1 minute - be sure you scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan.
Add the chicken stock and whole thyme sprigs and bring to a boil.
Once boiling, turn the heat off and place all the chicken back into the pot. Cover and braise in the oven for 1 hour (rotating the pot halfway through for even cooking).
Meanwhile, in a very large skillet (mushrooms need room to cook), melt the butter in the olive oil. Add the mushrooms and cook over medium-high heat, stirring only once or twice, for about 5 minutes. You want the mushrooms nice and browned. Season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, for an additional 3-5 minutes.
I timed this step so that the mushrooms would finish cooking right about when I took the pot of chicken out of the oven.
Take the chicken out of the pot and into a plate. Strain the braising liquid through a fine mesh strainer - press down on all the solids that catch so that you benefit from their flavor without making the sauce chunky. Skim off the fat (easiest way is to use a gravy separator) and
return the braising liquid to the pot. Bring to a boil, and reduce until you have roughly 1.5 cups of liquid (this took 5 minutes for me).
Whisk in the sour cream and lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. Add the mushrooms and chicken back into the pot. Simmer everything for an additional 3-5 minutes.
Serve by itself, over rice, or over pasta; garnish with chives.
Mangia!