#nomnomnom

This is a mashup of several recipes that I kind of cobbled together into a dish that my sister seems to really enjoy (and she’s rarely enthusiastic about anything.) When I cook in the kitchen, I usually have tunes going, so I decided that I would also recommend a record to play along with the dish and the reason why.

Recommended Album: SO by Peter Gabriel
This recommendation is a little on the nose, but as I was cooking chicken, it made me think of the dancing chickens in the Sledgehammer video, so I put this record on and even did some interpretive dancing in the middle of the kitchen for my sister before she rolled her eyes at me.

Ingredients:

• 8 chicken thighs (with skin and bones) or 4 leg and thigh quarters
• 2 Tbsps. olive oil
• 2 onions (diced)
• 6 garlic cloves (minced)
• 2 cups white wine
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 chicken bouillon cube or 1 Tbsp. Better Than Bouillon (I used Nom nom paleo magic mushroom powder for extra umami)
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ cup Dijon mustard
• 2 Tbsps. apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
• A couple of dashes of paprika
• ½ cup half and half, whole milk, or cream
• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Directions:

• Dice the onions and mince the garlic

• Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season both sides generously with salt, pepper, and garlic powder
• Heat up olive oil in a great big Dutch oven over medium heat (you want it big enough that you can put all of the chicken in 1 layer
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Once the oil is hot cook the chicken thighs, skin side down first for 5-10 minutes per side (depends on the thickness of your chicken pieces. The chicken will not be completely cooked through, but you want a nice crispy and golden brown texture on all of the skin). You may need to do this in a couple of batches to give the chicken room to crisp up and flip them over. Once the chicken is cooked put it aside on a plate uncovered while you prep the sauce.

• Drain all but a tablespoon or 2 of the drippings out of the Dutch oven and put back over medium heat. Add the onions and the garlic and let them release their liquid so that you can scrape all of the brown tasty bits off the bottom of the pan. Caramelize the onions and garlic for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently to get the drippings off the bottom of the pan. But, do not burn the garlic. If it is cooking too quickly, turn the heat down a notch or two.
• Once the onions are mostly done, turn the heat back up to medium high and add the 2 cups of white wine to the pan, using it to scrape the last of any brown bits off the pan and incorporating all of the onions into the wine for a couple of minutes. (At this point you may as well also pour yourself a glass of wine because you’ll have some down time to sit and enjoy it in a bit.)
• Once the bottom of the pan is clear, add the 2 cups of stock, thyme, bay leaves, Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, and bullion cube. Stir together until it comes back up to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the liquid is reduced by half and has thickened considerably. I reduce if until it is about an inch or so deep in my Dutch oven. I want the top of the chicken to stay out of the liquid and stay crispy, but the bottom to absorb all of that flavor.

• Once it has reduced down, turn off the burner, add in the dashes of paprika and the half and half and stir until incorporated.
• Use tongs to layer your chicken on top of your oniony sauce mixture.

• Place the Dutch oven in the oven uncovered for 30 minutes.
• Baste the chicken in the sauce and braise for another 10 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted near the bone reads 160 degrees. (I can usually eyeball beef and pork, but I do not mess around with undercooking chicken. Because this is using dark meat and is braising in the sauce, it is very hard to overcook it and dry it out.)
• Once the chicken is done, remove it from the oven and let it sit in the Dutch oven, uncovered for 10-15 minutes.

• To serve, you can remove the chicken to a plate and reduce the sauce down further to a thicker consistency, or just give it a good stir it and spoon it over as it is pretty thick after cooking down even further in the oven. I like to roast carrots, potatoes, and green beans or broccoli in the oven to go along with this dish and slather everything in the sauce. But, it also pairs well with mashed potatoes and Brussel sprouts.