Cozy Braised Chicken

The other night the Fabulous Becca & Mia from Red Letter Days in San Diego rolled into town on a cross country drive. As I continue to lobby the creation of Red Letter Days East Coast, I thought I'd try seducing the ladies with some braised chicken and plenty of sparkling wine!

It might take some time, but I'm pretty sure it worked!

Start with the recipe here.

Braised Chicken with Shallots, Fennel and Bacon

Get some of your ingredients ready. Fennel. Shallots. Carrots. Bacon.


Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Sear until the skin is crispy in the reserved bacon fat! Don't worry, the chicken doesn't cook through, just get the skin crisp and some of the fat is rendered out.


Pour out the fat from the pan, reserving one to two tablespoons. Start sauting the vegetables.


Carrots, Fennel, Shallots with an herb blend of thyme, sage, rosemary and parsley.


Snuggle the chicken into the vegetables and add some dry white wine and chicken broth, bring to a simmer, cover and place in the oven for an hour.


Remove the chicken from the braising liquid and scoop the veggies out to the side. Boil the liquid until it's reduced down to about one to two cups. Stir in a tablespoon or two of butter. In the last minute or two of simmering, add the bacon. Pour over the chicken.


Serve steaming hot.

Couscous with shallots and parsley

This was a lovely, simple side dish we had the other evening. The recipe was in the recent Everyday Food. I altered the quantities to what I had on hand and it worked well, adjust as you need to.

Israeli Couscous with Shallots & Parsley

The ingredients. Simple enough. I did cook my couscous in chicken broth and saved some of the cooking liquid to help keep the final dish from drying up; almost making a light sauce.

Cook the shallots in olive oil...

...until golden and beautiful.

I tossed the couscous, lemon juice, parsley and the cooking liquid in the skillet, stir and serve.

A very nice side dish. I'll make this again. The parsley and lemon really pop the flavors. The shallots are mellow and sweet.

From Everyday Food.

Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 cup Israeli (pearl) couscous
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 shallots (about 1/2 pound total), halved and thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1. In a medium pot of boiling salted water, cook couscous until al dente, according to package instructions. Drain, and transfer to a bowl.

2.. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add shallots; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Add to bowl with couscous. Add parsley and lemon juice, and toss. Season with salt and pepper.

Tastes like more

Last night's dinner took it's inspiration from a recipe in the fantastic, behemoth, 1080 Recipes. There were a few extra steps I didn't want to take and some ingredient changes. This was very tasty and I was ready for plenty more when I was done!!!

Pork Chops with Mustard, Wine & Orange Juice

strange I know!

I used very thinly sliced pork chops, no more than a quarter of an inch. Season with a pinch or two of salt and fresh black pepper, then spread a light layer of Dijon mustard over the chops.

Saute the chops in a pan with one tablespoon of olive oil, over high heat. Because the chops are so thin, this takes just a few moments, as long as your pan is hot enough.

Remove the chops to a plate. Toss two finely chopped shallots into the pan and cook for one minute. They will be very aromatic and start to become translucent. Deglaze the pan with a quarter cup of dry white wine. Scrap up any bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pan, that will include some tasty pork chop flavor and mustard! Add a quarter cup of orange juice. Drop heat to medium and simmer until the sauce begins to reduce and thicken. About two minutes. Stir in some chopped parsley.

I served the chops with some potatoes. Drizzle with the sauce and enjoy. Dinner took about 10-15 minutes and was very good. I will make this again.

Another Flavorful Braise

This dish is the cover recipe of the recent Fine Cooking magazine. Before I get to the recipe; Fine Cooking has undergone a make-over and I'm not loving it. Makes me a little sad, as it has been THE food magazine for me for ages, I credit it often in teaching me new recipes, techniques and tips. Most of the changes have been cosmetic, but I also felt a lack of recipes in this first re-designed issue. Just my opinion...

Anyway, braised chicken. I seriously have grown fond of braising chicken thighs for some serious flavor and beautifully tender meat, as well as the thighs are very affordable, and who doesn't like that! If you're not a fan of dark meat, give this method of cooking a chance, you may not turn back. Also, braising is easy, fairly forgiving and open to many different interpretations for flavor.

Using bone-in/skin-on chicken thighs, you need to sear the meat. I switched the recipe steps around and cooked the bacon first, then seared the chicken in some of the bacon fat.

When the chicken is done, you start to saute some fennel, carrots and shallots, add some fresh parsley and thyme.

Braising has one downfall, you can't have crispy skin on your chicken. Usually, I sear the chicken to render the fat and start to establish a flavor base for the cooking liquid, then I remove and discard the skin. This time, when the braising was complete, I put everything on a baking sheet and put it under the broiler. The skin crisped up perfectly. The veggies got a light touch of crispness as well.

The braising liquid (wine & chicken broth) is fairly light and needs to be reduced on the stove top to make a rich, lovely sauce. Let this boil for about 10-15 minutes, reducing to about one cup of liquid.

Plate up. Chicken, veggies, bacon, sauce. Delicious. The carrots kept a bit of crunch, the fennel and shallots were soft, the bacon chewy. Great textual contrast paired with wonderful flavor components. The fennel's anise flavors paired beautifully with the carrots and contrasted the rich sweetness of the bacon and shallots and complimented the moist chicken. Well done.

NOTE: The recipe will be forthcoming when I have it in front of me.