Braised chicken thighs has to be by far one of my favorite things to cook and eat. Working as a sous chef in a fine dining restaurant, serving things like duck pate, foie gras and truffles up the yin yang, all I want to eat on my days off is something simple and comforting. For me, braised chicken thighs always does the trick.
In one of my posts I asked the readers to play a game with me, a little game called the death row meal. It is a game that chefs and cooks have been playing for centuries, a good ice breaker to find out what someone in the industry or who really loves food is all about.
Well, for me, this is it. If I were to die tomorrow, this is what I would eat tonight. Chicken thighs are the most used muscle of the animal, making it full or all sorts of great flavor. You see, the more exercise an animal’s muscle gets, the more connective tissue and collagen it is able to build up. This makes the cut of meat tough if cooked incorrectly (read seared rare), but if cooked low and slow in a braising liquid, all that collagen and tissue breaks down into gastronomic heaven!
How To Braise Chicken Thighs
Start by searing the chicken over medium-high heat, skin side down in a heavy bottom sautée pan, and then flip it over when the skin becomes a beautiful golden brown as shown in the picture to the left. The crispy skin is 80% of my motivation to eat chicken in the first place and is the secret to any great chicken dish
Once the chicken skin is nice and crispy, remove it from the pan and set aside.
Place chopped mushrooms in the bottom of the pan with a nice large pat of butter. The moisture from the mushrooms and the butter will help to “deglaze” the pan, loosening all the nummy little chicken bits stuck to the bottom. Cook the mushrooms and butter, seasoning with a little sea salt, until they start to soften and brown.
Once the moisture from the butter and mushrooms has almost evaporated, finish the deglazing process by adding some good balsamic vinegar, enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Red wine also works great, but that just means less for you to drink later.
Reduce balsamic by half.
Once the balsamic vinegar has reduced by half, add in a bunch of blanched garlic. Now, looking at the picture in the middle section above, you might think that this is garlic overload, but its not. If you blanch the garlic first, it will soften and become extremely mild, making your dish permeate garlic without it’s harsh, pungent taste.
Stir the mushrooms, garlic and balsamic together until all the ingredients get a chance to know each other.
After the aforementioned ingredients have gotten good and acquainted, add in enough chicken stock to cover the thighs by 3/4s, leaving only the skin exposed.
Like I said before, there is nothing better than good crispy chicken skin, and soaking them in braising liquid for an hour ruins all the hard work that it took to get them to that beautiful state in the first place. Notice how in the picture above right, the chicken thighs are carefully nestled in the pan so that the whole thigh is covered except for the skin. This is secret to perfectly braised thighs!
Once you have all the chicken thighs submerged in the braising liquid, bring it to a simmer on your stove top and then place into a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes to an hour depending on the size of the thighs.
When the thighs have braised for about an hour, pull them out of the oven and remove the chicken thighs from the pan, setting them aside on a clean plate for latter.
Place the sautee pan back on your stove top and turn your burner to medium-high heat and allow the braising liquid to reduce by about 3/4s or until it becomes thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
When your sauce has reduced down to the proper consistency, add in a couple handfuls of fresh spinach and stir until it wilts, as shown in the picture above. If your chicken has cooled off too much, add it back into the pan briefly to bring it back up to temperature.
Finish the dish by placing two chicken thighs per person on a plate over freshly steamed rice. Spoon the spinach, mushroom and garlic jus over the chicken, and thank God you had some balsamic in your cupboard so that you didn’t have to use any of that nice red wine that you’re about to enjoy!
{ 55 comments… read them below or add one }
Next Comments →
This recipe is on my list to experiment.
You said blanched garlic is extremely mild, what if I simply used half the garlic and non-blanched… would that work. I am a college kid and every penny counts =D
I must say that the moment I read this recipe I thought it was going to be a it. Guess what ? IT WAS! I did somethings different .. The searing on my cast iron pan took much more than expected so I just cut the step of the balsamic reduction. I blanched the garlic once and used about 2 garlic bulbs for about 8 thighs. The room filled with smoke and after 40 mins, I did not need to do reduce the braising liquid, as I could already coat the back of my spoon fresh from the oven. Served with rice, seasoned with roasted garlic, EVVO, Italian herbs and zucchini, grape tomatoes and carrots. It was the hands down one of the best meals I have ever cooked!!!
Kent,
Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you. Sounds like you had great success with the recipe. To answer you question about the garlic, the reason why I blanch it is because it allows to add lots of garlic without getting the harsh bitter taste that raw garlic usually has. You can use fresh garlic in smaller amounts, the dish will still be great, but it won’t have the same flavor structure.
The most important thing that you should get from this post however is not the flavors that I use, but the technique of how to braise chicken thighs. Sounds like you got it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9762276@N02/2696377906/
Jacob,
This was an excellent dish. I ended up using one head of garlic for four thighs, and I had to resort to boxed chicken stock; however, I will definitely make this dish regularly.
Justin,
I’m glad you liked the dish; there is absolutely nothing wrong with using boxed chicken stock. There are some really decent brands out there that you can use with great results. Not every home cook has the time, space and prep cooks to constantly have fresh stock on hand.
Wow, does this sound good! My hubby loves crispy chicken skin, and the other ingredients sound as if they’d be delicious mixed together. Definitely trying this out for Thursday night dinner; thanks for the inspiration! Love this site!
Made this tonight and…just, WOW. Outstanding flavor, rich and satisfying. I laid out the rice in a rectangle across the plate, put one chicken breast at each end, and put some of the spinach-mushroom mix in between, then poured some jus over the spinach. My husband kept going “Umm…mmm!” throughout the meal and demanded that I instantly put this dish into the “rotation.” Easy and FABULOUS! Thank you!
@Clematis,
I’m glad you tried this…yes it’s simple, but sometimes those are best things to eat.
add figs and a touch of cider vinegar & honey at the end for a genius dish – thank judy rogers!
@ Ksra,
Sounds great. Mmmm figs; enough said.
Just made the recipe… and WOW… great flavor!
I am stoked, because I learn to braise… and to poach garlic.
One question… I used about three tablespoons of oil to saute the thighs… oil splattered EVERYWHERE. I thought about maybe just using a light coating of Pam next time… would that suffice?
Thanks for all the knowledge… I owe you a beer.
-Kevin
The solution to your problem is a splatter guard. It’s a wire mesh top that keeps the oil from splattering all over your stove, making a mess. You can order one here.
Would it be ok to substitute carrots (finger food size) for the mushrooms? And would it effect the cooking time?
@ John,
Sustituting carrots would be fine. You can add them in right before you place the chicken thighs in the oven to braise. If you prefer your carrots a little bit more al dente, you can always blanch them first, and then add them at the end of the cooking process when you’re reducing the sauce.
The meal turned out great, with the exception of me being a moron and grabbing the pan on the stovetop I’d just taken out of a 400 degree oven. Doah! Owned a pizza place for a few years and never did something so dumb. But a little kitchen safety segment on what to do for fires or burns might come in handy for us amateurs. Great Podcast!
Thanks,
John
@ John,
LOL…you know, I do the same thing. Its weird; I’ll handle 500 degree pans all day long at work, and the moment I try to finish something in the oven at home I forget to grab it with a towel. It happens to the best of us.
You’re right, a safety course is long over-due…kitchen safety just isn’t as sexy as braised chicken thighs. Its just as important though.
great recipe and the plating was excellent.
Hi Jacob,
LOVE your website/podcast. Been looking for something like this for a long time. Just wondering if it would be possible to have a printer friendly format for the recipes and maybe other information, it would be great to use as a reference tool. thanks, and keep up the great info!
Anne Vetter
Hi Anne,
That’s a great suggestion. I’ll try and figure out a good way to set that up.
Hi Jacob – I braise chicken often and I found your tip of not submerging the skins to be particularly helpful. However, I have one question. I am used to braising chicken in a closed Dutch oven on the stove top – why do you cook your’s in the oven? What’s the difference?
Thanks
Hi Ben,
Braising chicken in a closed dutch oven is a great method to use; however, I like to braise this dish in the oven for a couple of different reasons.
One, it’s a lot easier to maintain a constant temperature when braising in the oven. The braising pan is completely surrounded by heat, whereas when braising on the stove top, you only have heat coming from the bottom.
Second, I like to braise this dish uncovered because it will help to keep the skin crisp, and will slowly reduce away some of the braising liquid, concentrating its flavors, and giving me a jump start on the reduction sauce.
Like I said, there’s nothing wrong with stove top braising, but for this particular dish, I prefer to use the oven (there’s nothing better then crispy chicken skin!).
I love crisp chicken skin. I wonder about using potatoes in place of the rice ?
By the way keep up the good work Jacob its great to have you to teach us fine dining
I just foud this site and its the best.
Thanks Jacob, that makes sense.
Grant, the great thing about braising is that vegetables can just be added to the pot – just throw some potatoes in there. Or throw some beans in there – of course, try to work on the timing so that quicker cooking things go in later. One of my favorites is a Moroccan style “tagine” – just add turnips, carrots, chickpeas, and some moroccan spices (e.g. cinnamon, coriander, cayenne, cardamom, clove).
This dish can easily be served with roasted potatoes or mashed potatoes. As long as you have a good starch that can soak up the braising liquid, you’re good to go.
Well I made this chicken dish tonight and !!! WOW !!! .
This is the best chicken dish I have ever had .
The chicken was cooked perfectly.
The tast of the sauce and everything in this dish was GREAT.
My wife loved it and my daughter loved it.
I stuck to the recipe on this page .
Thanks for your hard work on this site Jacob.
First off, i just found this site today and it has made an inredibily hungover and boring day a little more exciting at work ( not an easy task…) Great job, the content is great and you really have a gem here. Second a quick question about this recipe; you reference “skin” several times are you referring to the actual skin of the thigh or a hypothetical skin created by searing the thighs? The reason I ask is because this sounds amazing but for the obvious health reasons can it be made with skinless thighs?
@Pete
It’s the death row meal, not weight watchers:) That said you can probably do it, but I’ll leave that answer to the chef. If were me still do it with thighs and take the skin off after for taste. Then 5 min later I realize I want that delicious skin;)
P.S. I’m joking and don’t mean any disrespect if you have serious health concerns. My grandmas advice was to eat whatever you want because you never know when the doctors going to tell you you can’t anymore!
Thats funny… lmao… I personally dont care I do eat whatever I like and ofcourse am “pleasantly” overweight as a result. My main concern was listening to my wife complain due to the fact that she does do weight watchers. So for me it was more of trying to circumnavigate the “why do you cook things you know I cant eat” sort of deal. Still good stuff.
@ Pete,
Yes, you can make this recipe without the skin, although I think we can all agree that crispy chicken skin is a great guilty pleasure. What I would do is skip the skin searing part, build your braising liquid like normal, and then braise the chicken thighs without the skin.
Or better yet, just eat really, really healthy all week long and then make this dish as a reward
.
Jacob,
I thought I would post a follow up as I made this dish today and ate it for lunch. It received rave reviews from the other half. I did everything the same even seared the thighs before braising them and it was definitely better than I expected. Also I have never blanched garlic before that was a great tip ( one that I will keep with me ) it had all of the great flavor of garlic without the bite. Thank you so much for everything on your site I have been looking for something like this for awhile and this is great.
P.S. Not sure what your current setup is but I do web design on the side and would be more than happy to help you with whatever you need it could be my way of “donating” to this class act website.
Jacob,
thanks, this sounds like an awesome recipe. Close enough to a braise I make with thighs, garlic and pancetta that’s wonderful; I may just try combining the two by browning some pancetta in the pan after the chicken. I think the sharpness of the spinach will nicely complement the pancetta.
@ Suemac,
I love good pancetta and I think its flavor profile will play very nicely with this dish. But then again I’m of the opinion that pancetta (and bacon) pretty much go great with everything.
You had me at pancetta!
I am cooking this right now and it smells very yummy. Hopefully the cheap jug wine my aunt made me take home at Thanksgiving will work well with this!
I have two questions would white wine work as well?
Can you add the rice to the liquid and cook it that way so it would be a one pan dinner? (I hate dishes!)
Thanks
This looks SO DELICIOUS.
I made this with creamy braised brussel sprouts and it was a fall delight! I also seared the chicken in bacon fat instead of butter and it made the skin so tasty! I should have made this for Thanksgiving dinner, what a meal!
@ Emily,
You are such a CHEATER! You know that bacon makes everything taste better. Actually, I’m just jealous that I didn’t think of it first! It sounds awesome, especially with the brussel sprouts.
Jacob,
Will this work with duck too? If not, do I need to improvise something?
@Bernie,
Yes, it will work with duck. Gently score the duck skin with a sharp knife in a cross-hatch pattern. Cook skin side down over medium heat and really render out as much fat as you can, giving the duck a beautiful, dark, golden brown.
Cook as normal, but increase the oven braising time to about 1.5-2 hours.
Let me know how it turns out!
This recipe got rave reviews at a Sunday brunch with family and friends. I wouldn’t change a thing, except to use a better balsamic vinegar. I used the last of my good bottle some weeks ago and used an inferior product. Great comfort food with a kick.
Emily,
Great idea on the rendered bacon fat. I won’t miss that trick on the next go-around.
Thanks!
Hi Jacob,
I made this braised chicken last night and, overall, it was very good and the flavor was there. There will be several things I do a bit differently next time (I didn’t reduce the sauce as much, or brown the mushrooms as much, and wish I had.)
One issue I had right in the beginning when searing the chicken is that all the skin came off. It stuck too much to the bottom of the pan and only bits stayed attached (of course, not where those bits would stick out of the liquid during the oven part.) How can I keep the skin attached during the searing?
Oh, and I added diced onions, a bit when browning the mushrooms, and a bit right before putting the whole thing in the oven. Love onions!
Thanks for the great instruction and website!
@Eric,
The skin sticking to the pan is a pretty common problem but easy to fix. First, a good sautee pan will solve much of this problem. The heavier the bottom the better. This will give you much more even heat.
Also, make sure the sautee pan is hot before you add the cooking oil, and add enough oil to evenly coat the pan with a thin layer.
When you place the chicken in the pan (skin side down) it should sizzle and crackle. If you don’t hear a sizzling noise, remove the chicken and let the pan heat up more.
One last thing you can try is to dust the chicken skin with a little flour before cooking. This will not only help prevent sticking, but it will also help to thicken your braising liquid so that you don’t have to reduce it as much.
That should do the trick. Let me know if you have anymore questions.
I tried it with duck. I followed Jacob’s advice to score the duck skin with a sharp knife in a cross-hatch pattern. It was fantastic!!! Thank you…
@Bernie,
Sounds awesome. Maybe next time I have some duck legs laying around I’ll give it a whirl. Thanks for the update!
Just plain yummy!
I did a Moroccan take on the recipe, adding cumin, paprika, and fresh sage. I also added golden raisins and leeks instead of mushrooms, then used the braising liquid to cook cous-cous at the end which had the leeks and raisins mixed in. Awesome
This recipe was outstanding!!! The balsamic glaze was so flavorful and the garlic was tender and succulent. This is a keeper and will be making this again.
Hi there …. interesting recipe. One question though: aren’t braised dishes usually cooked for a longer time in lower heat (ie: low and slow)? While I realize that the meat is not likely to dry out with all that liquid around, 400 seems pretty hot to me. Other dishes I’ve braised have typically been in a 250-275 oven. Thanks!
Next Comments →