As to be expected, my new job has done wonders for my own cooking. Learning via osmosis is a very real thing, and being surrounded day in and day out by professionals means I’ve picked up quite a few tricks: microplaning upside down so you catch more zest,
But the biggest boon has been in recipe inspiration — my coworkers are gems at discovering fascinating things to cook. Sometimes, they spark me to seek out classics, but in this instance, a Genius drove me straight to the source of this savory, bright, impossibly flavorful braised chicken.
It had me at “braised.” And then again at “salami.” And “olives” too. Crisped golden chicken doesn’t hurt either, nor does fennel, rosemary, oregano, and lemon juice. There are layers upon layers of flavor here, each adding a bit of zing. The salami and olives are here to add salt, sure — but they also add depth, and they infuse the sauce with so much punch that I literally drank it with a spoon.
The recipe comes from Donald Link, the mastermind behind the best thing I ate in New Orleans, and it is exactly the kind of chicken I want in the dead of winter: sharp and snappy and so jazzed up that I forget warm weather is still many many months away.
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I made a few tweaks, including *gasp* omitting the white wine because I was drinking red and didn’t want to open a whole bottle of white. It sounds insane, I know, but I didn’t miss the wine. I also omitted the flour to keep things gluten-free, which means my sauce was a bit thinner than Kristen’s, but it still reduces nicely without a thickener.
Ingredients
- 8 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs (about 3–1/2 to 4 pounds)
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 3 tablespoons neutral oil
- 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
- 5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- 1 rosemary branch, about 8 inches
- 6 ounces hard salami, cut into a 1/2-inch dice (I used a spicy Calabrian-style, but any hard dry sausage will do)
- 1 cup pitted green olives, rinsed and cut in half (I used Castelvetrano, but picholine or Sicilian olives also work — if yours aren’t pre-pitted, here’s a great technique for pitting olives without wanting to throw something [see, I told you I’ve learned some things!])
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2–1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 4 bay leaves
- juice of 1 lemon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F. Pat the chicken dry, then season it with salt and pepper.
- In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and sear the chicken in batches until golden, 5-7 minutes per side. Transfer the cooked chicken to a 9-x-13-inch baking dish. Once you’ve finished browning the chicken, transfer the accumulated oil and chicken fat into a small bowl. Add two tablespoons of that fat mixture back into to the skillet.
- Add the onions to the skillet and until softened and beginning to brown, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, fennel, rosemary branch, salami, olives, oregano and red pepper flakes. Add the tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes.
- Pour in the chicken broth in batches and stir to incorporate. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook until slightly thickened, 5-7 minutes. Stir in the bay leaves and lemon juice.
- Carefully transfer the contents of the skillet over the chicken in the baking dish, pouring the sauce to cover the chicken. Roast in the oven, basting every 30 minutes, until the chicken is very tender, about 1-1/2 hours. Discard the bay leaves and rosemary. Serve the chicken warm with plenty of sauce, and lots of bread (or mashed potatoes or egg noodles) to soak up all of that goodness.
Notes
Adapted from Donald Link via Food52
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