Simple Braised Chicken

I wanted to do a braised chicken dish and I found this really simple recipe. This should please a lot of people because it's basically chicken in gravy. It takes a little bit of time but can be done ahead and reheated before eating. I served mine with mashed potatoes and Fried Carrot Shoestrings (recipe found here).


Ingredients

6 chicken thighs, bone and skin on (adds more flavor but for healthier dish boneless, skinless thighs work just fine)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon roux (optional)*

Directions

1. Heat 1 tbs. olive oil in a large dutch oven or pan over medium high heat. Season chicken thighs liberally with salt and pepper. Add chicken, skin side down, to pan and saute until skin is nicely browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Turn chicken over and brown other side for another 5 minutes. Remove chicken and set aside.

2. Pour off excess fat but leave 1 tbs. in pan. Add onion and cook 5 minutes. Add garlic cloves and cook for 2 minutes.

3. Pour in wine and bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to scrape up any brown bits on bottom or around sides of pan. Boil until wine is reduced to 2 or 3 tablespoons, about 2 minutes.

4. Add chicken back to pan and cover with chicken stock. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer (low heat).

5. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes or until chicken is very tender.

6. Remove chicken and place on a plate to cool. As chicken cools, use a blender or immersion blender and puree the cooking liquid. (if adding roux, add at this point, after sauce is pureed but before adding chicken)

7. Shred chicken using two forks. Remove any fat, skin and bones. Add back to pureed cooking liquid.

8. You can make it up to this point and then put in fridge. When ready to serve, heat chicken over medium low heat until sauce and chicken are hot again. Serve over mashed potatoes with carrot shoe strings.

*If sauce for chicken is not as thick as you like, you can add in a roux. Melt 1 tbs. butter in a small saucepan. Once melted, add 1 tbs. flour. Whisk mixture together and cook for at least 3 minutes or until mixture turns slightly golden brown. Add roux to liquid slowly while whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Heat the liquid with the roux in it to see the roux thickening effects. If it gets too thick, just add more chicken stock.