Champagne Chicken
How many times are you in the mood for some bubbly, but don't always finish the bottle? We all know champagne or sparkling wine doesn't stay carbonated long, but why waste it? Let's make a sauce out of it!
I love simple dishes with minimal ingredients. Minimal ingredients doesn't mean minimal flavor. The combination of champagne and stock bring such complex flavors to this dish, you don't need much more than some fresh herbs. The chicken is fall apart tender and the sauce is luscious. The touch of fresh parsley adds a pop of color.
The usual suspects, onions, garlic and fresh herbs are in this dish. I'm also using SplenDishes Cottage Blend. A blend of celery seed, onion, thyme, garlic and rainbow peppercorns. It will be the perfect compliment to our chicken. I made this dish for a girlfriend and she loved it so much, she had me make her individual portions so she could freeze them! I think she will be jealous when she sees this :)
Since this is a braised dish, its good to use chicken on the bone. The bones add a lot of flavor to the sauce. I'm using a combination of leg/thighs and boneless, skinless breasts. You could easily just use all boneless, skinless breasts if thats what you perfer. Season all the pieces with Cottage Blend and heat a dutch oven pot on high heat.
Add olive oil to hot pan and brown chicken in batches on both sides. You want a nice golden crust on the chicken to seal in all those juices. When the chicken comes off the pan easily that means its ready to be turned over. Remove from pan when done.
Toss in onions and saute for a minute or so then add garlic. I left the garlic whole here and just gave it a smash. I'm going to blend the sauce with a hand blender later, so it's ok to leave them whole.
Continue sauteing onions and garlic until they become lighly golden. Season with about 1 teaspoon of SplenDishes House Blend.
We want this sauce to thick and rich, so by adding flour now, it will thicken with the liquids while cooking. About a tablespoon of flour is good. Stir it in with the onions and garlic for about a minute just to cook the flour taste out.
Leftover champagne or in this case, its sparkling wine. This was from New Years Eve and while it was delicious, I just couldn't finish it. So I popped a stay-cork in it and in the fridge it went. Here we are 11 days later.
Hey, it's NOT flat! I still wouldn't drink it, but it'll be perfect for this sauce. There's about a cup in here. Stir the wine into the onions, garlic and flour, scraping up all those beautiful brown bits from the bottom of the pan. It's going to thicken so keep stirring and have your stock ready to pour in. You'll need about 1 1/2 cups of stock for this.
Look at that, its already thick and delicious looking AND smelling. Add your stock in next and turn your oven on to 350 degrees(f).
Place the chicken back into the liquid along with a few fresh rosemary sprigs. Put the lid on and in the oven it goes for about an hour.
Here's what it looks like when you pull it out. Bubbling and smelling quite awesome. Pull the chicken out and place on a platter. Remove and discard the rosemary twigs. With a hand blender, blend the onions and garlic in with the liquid. The sauce will already be slightly thick, but by doing this it will thicken up more and be smooth like gravy.
Spoon sauce over chicken and sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley and rosemary sprigs. I served this over a bed of couscous which was great to soak up all that delicious sauce!
RECIPE
CHAMPAGNE CHICKEN
| Prep Time: 10 Minutes | Cook Time: 1 Hour 15 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 4 |
Ingredients:
- 4 chicken pieces
- 1 tablespoon SplenDishes Cottage Blend
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, smashed
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 cup champagne or sparkling wine
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon SplenDishes House Blend
- Fresh rosemary sprigs and fresh flat leaf parsley
Directions:
Heat dutch oven pot on high heat. Season chicken with Cottage Blend. Add oil to pot and in batches, brown chicken on both sides then remove from pan.
Add onions and saute for a minute then add garlic and House Blend. Saute both until lightly golden, then stir in flour. Combine flour and cook for a minute.
Stir in champagne, scraping up all the bits from the bottom of the pan. Sauce will thicken quickly, then add stock.
Place chicken back in pot along with a few sprigs of rosemary. Put the lid on, remove from heat and place in oven.
Cook for about an hour or so. Once done, remove chicken from pot and set aside to rest. Remove and discard rosemary twigs.
Using a hand blender, blend sauce until thick and smooth.
Spoon sauce over chicken and sprinkle with fresh parsley and garnish platter with rosemary sprigs.
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