Braised Chicken with Red Sauce and Rice

On Monday night, after a week of being sick in bed, I was excited to finally get back to cooking in the kitchen.  I knew that my fridge would soon be filled with lots of Thanksgiving leftovers, so I wanted to clear out some of the half-used items in my fridge.  This included 3/4 of a bottle of marinara sauce, eight cloves of garlic, and half a large yellow onion.  I decided that I would make a simple red sauce with these ingredients.

The night before, I took out a package of chicken thighs from the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw.  I patted the chicken dry and seasoned it with salt, pepper and herbs de Provence.  I warmed up my handy Dutch oven on the stove at medium-high heat with a two tablespoons of unsalted butter.  I added the chicken thighs to the pan to sear the meat.

While the chicken was browning, I quickly chopped up the leftover half onion.

I also took out some frozen Brussels sprouts from the freezer that I didn't use for my fall roasted vegetable medley.  I halved the sprouts and set them aside.  I wanted to make this sauce hearty so I decided to add a can of cannellini beans that I had in the pantry.  I drained and rinsed the beans and set them aside.

After searing the chicken on both sides (for approximately six minutes per side), I took the chicken out of the pan and set it aside.  I lowered the heat on the stove and added the chopped onion to the pan.  I also minced the eight cloves of garlic right into the pan using a garlic press.

I cooked the onions until they softened up and made sure to scrape all of the flavorful bits off the bottom of the Dutch oven.  I then added the halved Brussels sprouts to the pan.

And finally I added the cannellini beans to the vegetable mixture.

I returned the chicken to the Dutch oven and put it in with the vegetable mixture.

I covered the chicken thighs with the leftover marinara sauce.  I also added a few shakes of red pepper flakes.

I put a cover on the Dutch oven and let the chicken cook for about twenty minutes before I turned the chicken thighs over and cooked it for another twenty minutes.  While the chicken was slowly braising, I cooked two cups of rice in the rice cooker.

Forty minutes later, I checked the temperature of my chicken and it was ready to serve!  I plated a scoop of rice and a chicken thigh onto the plate and topped it with my hearty red sauce.  I grated some Parmesan cheese on top and dug in!

While the chicken took some time to cook, using the Dutch oven made this very simple and no-fuss.  Plus, cooking the chicken slowly in the Dutch oven made the chicken so moist while helping the flavors of the sauce come together.  I was happy to clear out some items from my fridge, pantry and freezer for Thanksgiving leftovers...which I'm definitely still enjoying!

Do you try to clear out your fridge in anticipation of Thanksgiving leftovers or am I the only one?  Also, please don't forget to vote for me as Boston's Best Local Blogger here.