I wanted a perfect braised chicken recipe for a chilly fall afternoon, so I turned to epicurious.com. The recipe I made seemed quite familiar, but I haven’t mentioned it on this site, so here it is.
I had to simmer it longer than 20 minutes — it was not cooked through yet at that point. Otherwise, I followed the recipe pretty closely. I normally use boneless/skinless, but I went with bone-in skin on thighs and it made it quite tender and moist. Altogether, an easy and taste meal but nothing spectacular.
Braised Chicken with Apples and Sage
Stove-top cooked chicken
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
- 8 each chicken thighs with skin and bones
- 1¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 1 tbsp butter unsalted
- 1 tbsp brown sugar packed
- 2 each apples peeled, cored, Gala apples preferred
- ½ cup shallots chopped, probably about 2 or 3
- ⅔ cup chicken broth reduced sodium
- 1 tsp cider vineagar
- ½ tsp sage chopped, fresh
Instructions
- Pat chicken dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown chicken well, starting with skin sides down and turning over once, 10 to 12 minutes total. Transfer chicken to a plate and pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet.
- Add butter, brown sugar, apples, and shallots to fat in skillet and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until apples are browned, about 5 minutes.
- Add broth, vinegar, and sage and deglaze skillet by boiling, stirring and scraping up any brown bits, 1 minute.
- Return chicken, skin sides up, to skillet along with any juices accumulated on plate. Reduce heat and simmer, loosely covered with foil, until chicken is cooked through and sauce is slightly reduced, 20 to 25 minutes.