Chicken Thigh with Beef Stock & Wine Gravy

This meal came out so much better than even I ever imagined it would. I was staying for a few days with the parents of a good friend—they are like family to me. The good doctor and his generous wife welcomed me into their now mostly vacant home. (I was making a twelve hundred mile trek across the lower Southern states, but that is a long story.)

In an effort to assuage my guilt at taking up space in their home, I offered to cook a few meals, and the Mrs. gave me her credit card and said, “buy whatever you need”. This was one of the meals I prepared. I received unsolicited compliments from both the wife and the daughter. The wife called the meal “exquisite”. The daughter said it was “perfection”. The gravy went really well with the pasta. As you can see, I even spooned a little of it over the pasta on my own plate just to try it, and I was blown away.

For this post, I want to focus just on the chicken because I didn't do anything special with the fettuccine.

You will find that I really don't like to write or use “recipes” exactly. Just how explicit the instructions need to be depends a great deal on the skills of the cook. With a good sous-chef, I could just say “cut two white onions into vertical slivers and then caramelize them.” He would know exactly what to do. Or at least he would if he had worked with me before. Even so, I will attempt to write a sort of recipe here.

Ingredients

• 4 boneless chicken thighs
• 1 quart beef stock (stock, not broth)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup dry white whine
• 1 large onion (specific type up to you)
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
• 1 cup + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Notes on Ingredients

I have never made beef stock, and it's not really on my list of things to do. Store-bought is fine—but be sure it's stock, not broth. The difference is that stock is made from a mix that includes the bones, and the result has more flavor and a richer mouth feel. Dry rosemary is definitely not an acceptable substitute for fresh rosemary. Possible choices for the wine are pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc. Regular distilled white vinegar is an acceptable substitute for the apple cider vinegar.

Preparation

Cut one onion into vertical slivers (16ths). Separate all of the vertical slivers by hand and soak them in vinegar anywhere from 20 minutes to overnight.

Cooking

Flatten each chicken thigh. Dice butter and melt in a large frying pan. Sear both sides of each thigh quickly on medium-high heat, and set aside. When done searing, wrap in foil and refrigerate. The next step will take a while.

Drain the vinegar from the onion slivers. In the same pan where you just seared the chicken, lower to medium-low heat, add two tablespoons olive oil and add the onion. Add one tsp apple cider vinegar. Stir well until all the slivers appear evenly coated with oil. Our goal here is to caramelize the onion.

Stir at intervals of not more than 4 minutes. Make sure none of the onion sticks to the pan and the pan never becomes dry. Add more olive oil to suit as needed. While the onion is cooking, there will be time to slice the garlic. I like thin flat slices rather than mincing. Do not add the garlic at the same time as the onion. Onion takes forever to caramelize, but garlic will burn very quickly if cooked in oil. Leave the garlic to the side for now.

After about 20-25 minutes, the garlic should be quite tender, but probably not yet brown. At this point, to properly caramelize the onion, you should reduce to low heat, stir frequently, and watch the onions carefully.

When you are satisfied that the onions are sufficiently caramelized, toss in the garlic slices and stir in. Let this cook 30 seconds. Then add beef stock and wine, and put the pan on medium high heat. Your frying pan may not hold an entire quart of beef stock and a whole cup of wine. That is not a problem. Add a little at a time. Simmer and reduce, then add more until you have used the entire supply. Reduce until you have made a relatively thick gravy.

Pre-heat an oven to 350 F. Pour the contents of the frying pan into a small baking dish. Add about two tablespoons of olive oil, and the fresh rosemary and stir well. Then add the chicken thigh. Bake covered for 20-30 minutes.

When serving, spoon some of the gravy and onion over each chicken thigh.