Perfect cure for a cold almost spring day. It is also known as “Chicken with wine” in English. I have also made this on vacation and notably Caribbean dive trips where we did not have a whole lot of cooking supplies or gear. It is a great 1 pot dinner. The whole house is now fragrant with the delicious aroma.
8 chicken thighs. We prefer the boneless skinless when available, or just the “family pack” with skin and bones works fine. Dredge in flour (~1 cup), salt and pepper and brown over medium heat in a couple of tablespoons of bacon fat or olive oil in a large kettle or dutch oven. Be sure to BROWN on all sides. Caramelization is important for best flavor (Maillard reactions are your friend) . You may cringe at the bacon fat, but the original recipes called for salt pork or fatback. This will be lighter if you just use the bacon grease rather than the fatback, but I if you want to be extravagant, smoked pork jowls chopped and fried would be just incredible. You do need the hint of smokiness which is why the bacon grease is preferred to oils. Keep adding more so that it does not run dry as you fry the pieces. It is better to do the frying in batches than crowd the pieces together. Drain off the excess fat at the end unless you are browning the potatoes as well (below).
Add coarsely chopped:
- 4-8 potatoes (4 if large, 8 if small)
You can optionally brown the potatoes a bit after the chicken comes out while you chop the rest of the veggies . Add a bit of olive oil so they don’t stick .
- 2-3 medium onions
- 8-10 carrots
- 3-6 ribs of celery (unless you are cooking for Teal)
- 5 cloves garlic
- Tomato paste – small can (4 oz)
Add 2 cups water and 1/2 liter or so of red wine; Burgundy or pinot noir. You want light and fruity, not oakiness.
3-4 bay leaves
3 tsp dried thyme (fresh sprigs if summer, but my thyme is buried under the snow right now)
1 tsp chopped dried rosemary – Teal objects to rosemary “twigs” in the stew. This should be what you grew last summer – fresh dried rosemary is so much better than old stock . If nothing else, make a trip to Penzey’s for the herbs.
Bake covered at 325 for 4-8 hours. Check every hour to make sure that it does not boil dry . Add more water if necessary.
Uncovered the last hour and mix in a bag (14.5oz) of frozen pearl onions) . With the top off to thicken up a bit and brown the top a bit. When you uncover, dig a depression to gather the fat in. This makes skimming the fat off much easier.
Applied time is about an hour. You could cut this to 20 min if you just “chop and flop” all of the pieces in the pan without browning but you won’t win as much praise that way.
Serve with good crusty bread and more wine. Enjoy.
Mark Bronkalla