I decided to make it the day before. That way I could remove the fat and the flavor would benefit from sitting a day. The night before I cooked it, I marinated the chicken in wine.
I made homemade chicken stock that was gelatinous like the recipe called for. I was going to make roasted red potatoes and green beans to be my side dishes. I used this recipe which was a good read too.
I started on cooking night by taking the chicken out of the wine marinade and patted it dry on paper towels.
I seasoned with fresh cracked pepper. I used all thighs and couple of pieces with the legs/backs attached. I reserved the wine and got out my enamel cast iron dutch oven.
I wanted to buy slab bacon, but I didn't have time at work today so just used "natural hardwood smoked - no preservatives" that I had in the fridge. It wasn't thick sliced or anything, but it would have to do...I used 4 slices.
I cut up my "mise en place" and I was really happy it wasn't too much and that I didn't have to do the pearl onions.
I started cooking at 9pm. 😓 I had made the chicken stock earlier (took 4 hours - though not hard labour) and also made dinner & lunches - whew! Anyway, I started by frying the bacon until rendered and crispy.
I moved it aside to paper towels and left the fat in the pan.
I browned the chicken next.
I set them onto a baking sheet when done.
The wine really gave them a nice color while browning. The first pieces browned great, but the more fat that accumulated, the more the pieces steamed at the end. It took me 3 batches of browning. I skimmed out most of the fat as there was a lot in the pan. I tossed in the mushrooms. I used almost a pound of cremini mushrooms as I like them and wanted more than the recipe called for. I browned them and then added in the carrots, garlic and pearl onions. (I couldn't take any good pictures here as there was too much steam coming out of the pot).
Next the bacon, reserved wine, thyme, and bay leaves went in. I brought to a simmer, scraping up the browned bits.
I put in the chicken and then transferred the pot, to the oven, uncovered.
Some of the chicken pieces were buried, but some sat above it all. I took it out and let it cool for an hour.
I put the chicken in another container and into the fridge it went. The lid went on the remaining stew in the pot and then into the fridge it went for the night, too. Tastes of both were good. It was midnight and tomorrow was a work day...and I was exhausted now.
The next evening, I started by skimming off all the fat from the stew.
I'd say I got about a half of cup of pure solid fat out, so I was really glad I did this step of putting it in the fridge overnight. On the stove top, I turned up the heat and let the sauce reduce by a third. I put my potatoes in the oven to roast.
I whisked in the butter to the sauce and I forgot to add some chopped Italian parsley. I put the chicken in the oven to re-heat for 20 minutes. I also put the green beans in at that time too. When everything was done, I put the chicken back in the sauce and voila, dinner was done! I plated and garnished with the forgotten parsley. I really didn't take any time to plate as I was serving and not thinking about my own plate for presentation.
I thought the sauce was very tasty. I liked that the best of everything. The chicken was okay. I'd probably try a different recipe next time but this was passable. I wished I could have found that I used the first time I made it. That being said, my chicken didn't look like his did in the recipe, either. 😊 I think everyone else enjoyed it regardless of what I thought. Maybe I was just really critical because of all the time I spent on it?
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