Grandmother's Chicken

Hi everyone!
Tonight's dinner is brought to you by Loren Samuelson. One of my oldest and dearest friends who sent me a great cookbook for my birthday this year. The cookbook is called, "Basic to Brilliant, Ya'll" and is written by a very funny lady (Virginia Willis) who is a traditional southern cook who took off to France and learned some techniques and tricks from the French. She is a hoot and very informative! Although tonight's meal was absolutely delicious, it was a huge pain in my you know what, mostly because I despise peeling garlic, hence why I usually use the frozen cubes from TJs. Thank God for sous chef Matt! He helped me make it through with only one conniption fit directed firmly at the garlic in question... Ok maybe 2 fits. So the reason this was a pain was prep only. It took probably 20 minutes to get the garlic, onions and potatoes chopped and ready to go and then another 30-40 minutes of cooking. So I'd say the whole thing took about an hour. Not a speedy meal, but one that will feed 4-6 easily and was very tasty, so if you can get past the peeling garlic, you're set. And for something that tasted like this, I can definitely get past it and I'm sure you can too!

Grandmother's Chicken

Ingredients:
- 1 Tbs of olive oil
- 1 Tbs unsalted butter
- 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (you can use a whole cut up chicken or bone-in breasts)
- 4 slices of bacon, cut into "lardons" (thin strips- she doesn't like crumbling bacon either AND has a fancy name for it!)
- 6 shallots, peeled and trimmed
- 2 heads garlic (~20 cloves) separated, peeled, and tough ends removed
- 3 sprigs thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 18 bite-sized fingerling potatoes, or 6 yukon gold potatoes cut into 1 inch chunks
- 12 white button or cremini mushrooms, stems trimmed (I used the cremini mushrooms tonight)
- 1/2 c. dry white wine
- 1 1/2  c. low sodium chicken broth

Peel the shallots and trim the ends.

Shallot! Looks like an itty bitty onion, especially in sous chef Matt's big man hands

The sous chef doing his thing

Peeled trimmed shallots!

Peel the &#^$#@*! garlic.- To help you with this, separate all cloves, place in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave for 30 seconds. it will partially cook some of the cloves but it will make the peeling MUCH quicker. And ya'll know I'm all about making it quicker!

The discolored parts are because I heated them. It pre-cooks some of them but to me it's worth it because it doesn't take as much time. If you want to cheat further I've heard you can buy these things already peeled and sealed in a baggie at the grocery store... hmmmmmm

Heat oil and butter in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

Cook without moving the pieces or crowding the pan, until well browned on all sides, 5-7 minutes. Take your time, you want a nice rich brown..

Transfer the chicken to a platter and keep warm. Pour off all but one Tablespoon of fat from the pan. Decrease the heat to medium.

Add the bacon, shallots, garlic, thyme and bay leaves. Cook stirring occasionally until the bacon starts to get crisp and the shallots and garlic take on a little color

BACON!!!

Garlic, fresh thyme and bay leaves

So pretty! I love this picture so much I made it bigger so you all can enjoy the pretty too!

Add the potatoes and mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and return the chicken to the pan

This is the moment where I said "Oh $*&%! Is this pan big enough?!?! It the largest one I've got!"

Well, I did the only thing I could. Salt and peppered the veggies and went on with the recipe

Holy cow! The chicken did fit! Whew!!! One big sigh of relief!

Pour the white wine and stock over the chicken and veggies.

After adding the wine and chicken broth have a glass for yourself. Of wine! Not chicken broth. Silly readers!

Cook until veggies are tender and the juices of the chicken run clear (OR internal temp reaches 165F). Approximately 20-25 minutes.

I cooked it for 10 minutes with the lid on...

And 15 minutes with the lid off. I did not remember to take the temp of my chicken thighs which was BAD. My chicken was a bit under-cooked when I ate it later. So learn from my mistake and check your chicken!

Last step... Server immediately and enjoy! I know I did, even with undercooked chicken it was FANTASTIC! I just had to toss the chicken back into the pan for another 5 minutes/side, but I got to eat delicious mushrooms and potatoes while I waited!
Happy Eating!