Beer-Braised Chicken

During the week, I like to make simple and easy recipes that don't take up too much time.  After all, I did just make Williams-Sonoma's meyer lemon poppy seed muffins from a quick bread mix.  But on the weekends, I like to pick more challenging recipes that allow me to take my time in the kitchen.  This past weekend, I flipped through some of the recipes that I previously flagged and tore out from magazines.  I settled on an April 2010 recipe from Food Network Magazine for Beer-Braised Chicken.  Sunday, however, turned into a relaxing day filled with lattes, reading and napping.  In the end, Bret and I decided to order a pizza for dinner and the recipe had to wait another day.

I'm glad that I waited another day to make the beer-braised chicken because Monday was a rainy and gloomy day.  This hearty beer-braised chicken was a perfect comfort food for this depressing start to the week.

First, I gathered my ingredients.  I stuck pretty closely to the recipe although I did alter the amounts of some of the ingredients a bit:

• 1/4 pound slab or thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (about 1 1/4 pounds) (the original recipe calls for 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs - about 2 1/2 pounds)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• All-purpose flour, for dredging
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 12-ounce beer (preferable brown ale)
• 1 cup frozen pearl onions (the original recipe says to thaw them)
• 1 pound small red-skinned potatoes, cut in chunks (the original recipe calls for 1/2 pound small red-skinned new potatoes, halved)
• 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard and 1 tablespoon bourbon molasses mustard (the original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard)
• 1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar (the original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar)
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

I started out by slicing the bacon in 1/2-inch pieces.

I also cut the potatoes down into large bite-sized chunks.

I then warmed up the Dutch oven on the stove over medium-high heat.  I added the bacon and cooked until browned.

I removed the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and transferred them to a paper towel-lined paper plate. 

While I was working on the bacon, Bret seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper.  I then dredged the chicken in flour.

I added the olive oil to the drippings in the pan (although in hindsight, the olive oil was completely unnecessary).  I cooked the chickens in batches over medium-high heat until golden on the bottom and then seared the other side for just a minute.

I then added the beer to the pan.  I chose this beer with help from the helpful folks at my neighborhood package store.  I probably would have chosen this beer based on the adorable label alone!

I added the onions, potatoes, mustard, sugar thyme and one cup of water to the pot and stirred.  I made sure that the chicken was fully submerged.

My potatoes took awhile to cook through so I probably kept the Dutch oven simmering for about twenty-five minutes.  While I kept an eye on the pot, Bret helpfully chopped up three tablespoons of parsley.  When the potatoes had cooked through, I removed the thyme and added the cooked bacon and parsley to the dish.

The chicken was so tender and you barely needed a knife to cut through it.  The bacon added a lot of smokiness to the dish while the parsley helped cut through the fattiness.  The sauce wasn't too thick so the dish didn't feel too heavy, which made it a nice meal for a spring evening (even if it was a cold and dreary one).  And this dish was even better the next day as leftovers for lunch because the sauce really soaked into the chicken, potatoes and pearl onions. 

Do you like to cook more on the weekends or during the week?