Today, we are learning to braise chicken thighs. It’s a fabulous method that produces a crispy
skin, very soft meat, and a lovely sauce. French comfort food doesn’t get much better
or much easier. What makes this particular braise a bit exotic is the quince. Most of
the quince people consume in the US is in the form of a Spanish sweet paste called Dulce
de Membrillo. You know that stuff you usually see on cheese boards. Don’t get me wrong,
I love Dulce de Membrillo, but quince is good for so much more than that.
Unfortunately, the only variety of quince that I’ve seen in the Boston area is the
Pineapple quince that’s grown in California. The sad thing is that it does not behave well
in desserts, particularly in baking because it’s not all that juicy. But it works really
well in savory dishes, and gives me that quince fix that I miss so terribly. The quince that
I grew up eating in the former Soviet Union was probably grown in Uzbekistan (or some
other southern former Soviet Union republic) and it was one of the tastiest fruit I’ve
ever had in my life.
Ok, enough talking, let’s cook. If possible, trim and salt your chicken a day or at least
a few hours before cooking. This will help it retain more moisture during the long cooking
time. That being said, it’s not all that important in this dish since it produces a
very plentiful sauce.
For the leeks, I am only using the white and pale green parts. The dark green parts are
too tough. Cut them in half and flip through the layers under cold running water to wash
out any sand that might be stuck there. Then slice your leeks crosswise. Today I have 220g
of leeks, but the amounts of all the ingredients for this dish are completely flexible. You
are welcome to eyeball everything.
Peel your quince. Trim the ends.
And cut the flesh off.
The quince core is so big that it’s inevitable that some seeds will end up in the pieces
that you cut off, so take a melon ball scoop or a paring knife and cut them out. Then slice
your quince into thick pieces. Don’t be tempted to taste it. Raw quince tastes as
good as a raw potato. I promise it will become delicious after cooking.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and set a very large skillet (I am using a 12 inch pan
with straight sides) over high heat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and wait for it to
get hot. While the pan is heating up, dry your chicken thighs extremely well on paper
towels. If you chicken sticks, it’s because it’s not dry enough. If you haven’t salted
it yet, salt it right before placing in the pan so that the salt doesn’t make it damp
again.
Place the thighs in the pan skin side down. If the first one doesn’t produce an energetic
sizzle, remove it immediately and preheat your pan longer. Cook the chicken without
disturbing for a couple of minutes. It’s normal for it to stick a little in the beginning,
just let it be. Once it’s brown enough, it will let go very easily. Regulate the heat
so that the chicken is browning steadily, but not burning.
While our chicken is browning, let’s talk about the pan. This dish can be done in any
pan, but the sauce relies heavily on the brown bits left over by the chicken. Which pan you
use will determine the amount of brown bits that you’ll get.
My first choice is stainless steel. Second choice is enamel coated cast iron. It’s
stuff like Le Creuset. Besides the fact that it’s insanely heavy and overpriced, it’s
perfectly fine. My third choice here would be the seasoned cast iron because cooking
wet acidic ingredients is not great for its seasoning, but it will do. And my last choice
would be non-stick because it doesn’t produce any brown bits. That being said, even my last
choice will produce a very tasty dish. But if you have different types of pans to choose
from, I thought it would help you to know their advantages and disadvantages.
Also keep in mind that different pans require different preheating procedures. The core
of the stainless and non-stick pans is aluminum and it preheats in just a couple of minutes
because aluminum is a great conductor. So it’s good to put oil into the pan as soon
as it goes on the heat. When the oil is very shimmery, that’s the sign that your pan
is preheated.
This approach is not great for cast iron pans whether they are coated in enamel or seasoned.
The problem with iron is that it heats very slowly and very unevenly. If you put oil into
it right away, the oil might start to smoke because parts of the pan are very hot, while
parts of the pan are lagging behind. These pans need a pretty long, but not very aggressive
preheat. Set them on medium heat and give them about 5 minutes without oil. Then crank
up the heat all the way to high, put in the oil and once it shimmers, add the food.
Our chicken is looking nice and brown and we are ready to flip. Cook until the other
side browns lightly and get the chicken out of the pan keeping it skin side up in a single
layer to keep the skin crisp.
Put the quince in the pan, spread it out so that each piece touches the pan with its flat
side and cook without moving on medium-high heat until brown. This looks good, let’s
give it a stir.
When the other side gets some color, move the quince out of the pan and add the leeks,
a pinch of salt, and a tablespoon of butter or more olive oil. I totally meant to add
a couple of chopped garlic cloves, but I completely forgot. As you can see it’s a very flexible
dish, so unless the ingredient you are missing is the chicken, it’s all good. Cook stirring
occasionally until the leeks just start to soften and brown.
Add 1 cup of dry white wine and scarpe up the brown bits. I am using Charles Shaws sauvignon
blanc from Trader Joe’s, also known as 2 buck chuck. Add 1 cup of chicken stock, though
water will work in a pinch since the chicken will give you plenty of flavor and gelatin.
If using store bought stock, make sure it’s unsalted or at least low sodium.
Stir it all up and place the chicken on top. This amount of liquid is working well for
me, but you might need to use a bit more or less depending on the shape of your pan and
how many chicken pieces you are cooking. The goal here is to keep the skin completely above
the liquid to prevent it from getting soggy, but to have the meat at least partially submerged.
After the chicken is back in the pan and some liquid is displaced, I am guessing the depth
is about ½ and inch. If I have some thyme lying around, I tuck a few sprigs into the
sauce. Place the pan in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes.
Then scatter the quince between the chicken pieces and place it back in the oven for an
additional 20 minutes. The reason we add the quince later is to prevent it from getting
so soft that it disintegrates in the sauce.
Test the chicken for doneness by stabbing it with a fork in the thickest part. There
should be absolutely no resistance. It should feel like room temperature butter. If it’s
not completely soft, put it back in the oven and test every 10 minutes.
Let’s do Chef John’s fork test. That, my friends, is a fabulous chicken skin.
When the chicken is done, let it sit in the sauce for 15 minutes. This will give it a
chance to re-absorb some of the moisture. Remove it to a serving plate and keep in a
warm place. Don’t cover so that the skin doesn’t turn soggy.
Remove and discard the sprigs of thyme and boil down the sauce over high heat until it
turns slightly syrupy. Taste it periodically, and if it starts to become too salty, continue
to the next step. Add a good dollop of creme fraiche about ⅓ of a cup. If you don’t
have creme fraiche, you can use heavy cream with a squirt of lemon. Bring to a simmer,
taste and adjust salt and acidity in the form of lemon juice. They balance each other, so
if you feel you have too much of one, add some of the other.
If you have some tarragon lying around, like I do today, its mineraly aroma is perfect
for this dish. But I’d be happy to settle for parsley, chives, or skip the herbs entirely.
Don’t worry if your chicken cools off a bit. You can always rewarm it in the sauce.
Drizzle the sauce underneath and around your chicken, sprinkle with a bit more tarragon,
and serve.
So soft and saucy -- mmm.
This dish lends itself to infinite variations. Here is the one we made today. And here is
one that feels Moroccan,
Spanish,
Provencal or maybe Italian,
French 1,
French 2,
French 3. There are probably a dozen different French dishes you could get out of this technique.
Playing with all these flavor combinations will not only produce many great meals, but
will give you plenty of practice with 3 fundamental cooking techniques: salting, braising, and
sauce reduction.
Here are more culinary tutorials for you to check out and a link to my online classes
is in the description below.