Crispy Braised Chicken with Sticky Prunes
Ever dream of crispy chicken skin, but tender thigh meat all cooked in red wine? Orange peel, rosemary and olives add depth to this dish while the braise tenderly cooks the chicken meat to perfection. The chicken skin remains above the level of braising liquid and will crunch like a potato chip! Serve over rice or pasta and you’ll impress a crowd. See how it’s made here and here.
Serves 4, Total Time: 1 hr, 15 min
Special tools: this recipe was developed with a 10” cast iron pan in mind. If using an 8” you’ll need to reduce the chicken thighs to 3 and use 1 cup of red wine and 1 cup of chicken stock for the braising liquid
Ingredients:
Kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper
4 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
1 and 1/2 cups red wine (a big Cab works well here)
1 and 1/2 cups boiling chicken stock (I dissolve Better Than Bouillon into boiling water)
2 orange peel strips, plus the juice of the orange
4 smashed garlic cloves
12 prunes
A few sprigs of rosemary
1 yellow onion cut into 8 wedges (through the root end so that they stay together)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/3 cup pitted Castelvetrano olives, some sliced in half
Thyme leaves for garnishing
Salt and pepper
Serve over rice or pasta
Make it!
Pre-heat oven to 400° F and make sure there is a rack in the center of the oven.
Rub salt and pepper all over your chicken thighs and let them sit while you prep everything. When you’re ready to cook, pat them dry with paper towels and place them skin-side down into a cast iron pan. Turn the heat on to medium AFTER you’ve placed them in the pan. Allow them to slowly come up to medium and cook for a total of 12-14 minutes untouched. DON’T TOUCH!! Once the skin starts to peel off of the pan at 12-14 minutes you can move them around to get a perfect golden brown (about 4-5 minutes more).
In a small bowl or pitcher, add red wine, boiling chicken stock, orange peels, garlic, prunes, and rosemary. Allow to sit for five minutes so that the prunes can start absorbing liquid.
Once the chicken thighs are perfectly crispy, remove and set aside on a paper towel-lined plate. With the heat still on medium, add your onions to the rendered chicken fat and sear until golden on each side (~2 minutes per side). Remove.
Reduce your braising liquid! In the same pan over medium heat, add the tomato paste for 1-2 minutes or until it starts to crackle. Pour the orange juice in and stir for 30 seconds. Lastly, add the red wine mixture and increase the high to medium-high to bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer for 8 minutes, or until reduced by half.
Add the onions and chicken thighs back into the pan, making sure that the braising liquid does not touch the crispy skins. Sprinkle the olives around the pan and bake (uncovered) for 30 minutes in the oven. If the sauce is too thin, remove the chicken and crank the heat to 450° F for 5 minutes.
Garnish with thyme and serve over rice or pasta. Enjoy!
