Rosemary Chicken with Red Wine Mushroom Sauce

Last Year's Post:  Broccoli Cheese Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Two Years Ago:    Benedictine Sandwiches

I paid a visit to a new international market in town today just to see what was there, since they tend to carry interesting and unusual foods.  In particular, I've found that international markets carry all sorts of produce that you can't find in normal grocery stores.  Case in point, I found some very cute little white beech mushrooms that I decided to add to this recipe.  Of course you can use any kind of wild mushrooms you want but I thought they added visual interest as well as taste and texture, and they're a cute garnish.

Having said that, the primary star of the show is the deep rich red wine mushroom sauce. Tremendous depth of flavor is added by soaking dried porcini mushrooms in hot broth, then adding both the reconstituted porcinis and their soaking liquid to the sauce.  Of course the bacon doesn't hurt, either.  The dish tastes like it came from France or Italy and was simmered for hours.

The original recipe called for grilling boneless skinless chicken thighs.  If it's cold outside and you don't want to grill, just grill the chicken on an indoor grill pan or saute in a regular fry pan.  You could also substitute boneless skinless chicken breasts or cutlets for the thighs, whichever you prefer.

Be sure to serve the chicken with mashed potatoes or pappardelle pasta to soak up all the delicious sauce.

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Rosemary Chicken with Red Wine Mushroom Sauce

Serves 4

1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs or breast cutlets

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for for drizzling

Salt and pepper

3 stems fresh rosemary, leaves stripped and chopped

1 cup chicken stock

2 slices bacon, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 shallot, finely chopped

8 ounces cremini mushrooms (can also use other wild mushrooms or a mix), cleaned, stemmed and sliced

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 cup dry red wine

Heat an outdoor grill, grill pan or sauté pan over medium-high heat.  Drizzle chicken with oil, season with salt, pepper and rosemary.  Cook chicken 4-5 minutes on each side until golden and cooked through.  Remove from heat and let rest 5 minutes.

Place stock in a small saucepan and heat on high until hot but not boiling.  Add dried porcinis, stirring to make sure the mushrooms are submerged.  Cover the pan and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes to reconstitute the mushrooms.  Remove the mushrooms from the broth and chop.  Strain the broth through a paper towel over a sieve to remove any grit, then set the broth aside.

In a medium skillet, add 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat.  Add the bacon, garlic and shallot and sauté, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes.  Add the cremini mushrooms to the pan and season with salt and pepper.  Sauté mushrooms for 10 minutes until browned.  Add flour and cook, stirring, 1 minute.  Add red wine to the pan and stir for 1 minute to reduce and thicken the sauce.  Add reserved mushroom stock and porcinis to the pan and simmer 1-2 minutes longer to combine.

Add the cooked chicken back to the pan and spoon sauce over to re-warm the chicken pieces for a minute or two.  Serve chicken with sauce over the top.

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken

Last Year's Post: Hot and Sour Soup
Two years Ago:  Korean Seafood Pancakes

I had a love/hate relationship with my slow cooker for years.  I originally bought it thinking it would be great for cooking a meal during the work week, but then I realized that if you have an 8-5 job very few recipes call for cooking the 10-11 hours that you'll be gone.  So, it turned into more of a weekend or day-off type of meal prep when the recipe particularly benefits from low and slow cooking.

Boneless skinless chicken thighs are one of those things.  They're perfect for the slow cooker because they stay moist while they become fall-apart tender.  It's actually the only way I cook chicken thighs because they can turn tough and chewy when cooked faster at higher heat. No one likes chewy chicken.

This is a simple yet very flavorful recipe for teriyaki chicken.  You could even just buy a bottle of teriyaki sauce if you're really pressed for time, but the homemade sauce allows you to control sodium and vary the other ingredients according to your family's taste.  More garlic, anyone?  Tip of the day:  Trader Joes has excellent soy sauce that has one of the lowest sodium levels I've found.

Don't be tempted to substitute cooking sherry for the dry sherry because it tastes bad and it has sodium.  Salted wine?  No thanks.  Buy a bottle of dry sherry at the liquor store and keep it on hand - it tastes much better, it's not expensive and it keeps forever.

Kids love teriyaki, so this is a great family meal when paired with white or brown rice and some sauteed sugar snap peas.  Leftovers make an excellent lunch the next day - warm, cold, or in a sandwich with some sliced cucumbers.

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Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken

Serves 4-6

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon dry sherry
3 cloves minced or grated garlic

Slice green onions, for garnish

Toasted sesame seeds, for garnish


In a small bowl, mix soy sauce, brown sugar, sherry and garlic together.

Place chicken in the slow cooker, cover with sauce.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-5.  Serve with green onions and toasted sesame seeds on top.

Coq au Vin

Last Year's Post: Lobster with Pasta and White Wine-Butter Sauce
Two Years Ago:  Lemon Chicken and Fennel Pot Pies

Coq au Vin (coke oh vah) is one of the most famous chicken dishes in the world, and justifiably so.  Made with red wine, bacon, mushrooms and garlic, really, what's not to like? Julia Child often made Coq au Vin on her cooking show and it was considered her signature dish.  Although a traditional Coq Au Vin uses a whole cut-up chicken and takes a really long time to make, I was happy to discover this recipe that uses boneless skinless chicken thighs and has very authentic flavor even though it only takes about 1-1/2 to 2 hours to prepare.  Still, 2 hours are 2 hours so this is probably best made on a leisurely Sunday afternoon, say, when the windchill is about zero.  It reheats beautifully so you could then enjoy it any night of the week and it's a perfect winter comfort dish.

Having said that, we decided to make it on a Monday night for some reason.  It took even longer than 2 hours because when we bought the giant package of chicken thighs at Costco we neglected to notice that they were skin-on and bone-in.  How could we not notice that?  We were probably distracted by the display of car tires in the next aisle, or the giant screen TVs on the other side.  Really, you gotta love Costco.

The Lawyer spent a fair amount of time learning how to bone and skin chicken thighs that night and is not looking forward to the other four packages in the freezer.  If you actually look at the package and manage to buy boneless skinless chicken thighs successfully (unlike us), the recipe is really quite easy.  The reason it takes a while is because you brown different ingredients in succession in the same pot, then simmer everything together for a while, then reduce the sauce some more.  Believe me, it's so worth it.  The flavor is rich and deep and just begs to be served with mashed potatoes to sop up the sauce.

For one small minute I considered buying fresh pearl onions after noticing them in the produce aisle at the grocery store.  Luckily, the original recipe stated that frozen pearl onions were just as good in the finished dish and much easier to deal with.  Can you imagine peeling 24 teeny tiny onions that are about 1/2" in diameter?  Having done some equally silly things in my past (peeling individual chickpeas for hummus comes to mind.....vividly) I don't want to go down that road again.

First you start simmering the sauce with some herbs.

While the sauce simmers, you cook the bacon and then brown the chicken in the same pot the bacon cooked in.

Then you remove the chicken and brown the onions and mushrooms in the same pot.

The sauce, chicken and bacon go back into the pot with the mushrooms and onions to cook until the chicken is tender.

Finally, you remove the chicken one last time and reduce the sauce even more before serving the delicious finished dish.

If you've ever enjoyed Coq au Vin at a French restaurant or just want to up your game with a classic French recipe, give this one a try.

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Coq au Vin

Serves 4-6

1 bottle (750 ml) red wine (Pinot Noir or Rhone Valley Grenache), divided

2 cups chicken stock

10 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley plus 2 tablespoons minced parsley, divided

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

4 ounces bacon, cut into ¼” pieces

8 boneless skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat and cut in half crosswise

Salt and freshly ground pepper

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

24 frozen pearl onions (about 1 cup) thawed and patted dry

8 ounces cremini mushrooms, cleaned, stems trimmed, halved if small, quartered or cut into 6 if large

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 tablespoons flour

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, combine all but 1 tablespoon of the red wine (reserving for later use), chicken stock, parsley sprigs, thyme and bay leaf and bring to a simmer.  Cook until mixture is reduced to 3 cups, about 20 to 25 minutes.  Discard herbs and reserve the wine mixture.

Meanwhile, in a large Dutch oven over medium heat, cook bacon stirring occasionally until browned, 7 to 8 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate.  Reserve 2 tablespoons bacon fat in a small bowl and discard the remainder. 

Lightly season chicken with salt and pepper.  Return Dutch oven to medium-high heat.  Add 1 tablespoon of bacon fat and heat until almost smoking.  Add half of the chicken in a single layer and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes per side.  Transfer cooked chicken to a bowl.  Add the remaining tablespoon of bacon fat and heat until almost smoking, then repeat with the remaining chicken.

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in the now-empty Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  When foaming subsides add pearl onions and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally until lightly browned, 5 to 8 minutes.  Reduce heat to medium, add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add tomato paste and flour and cook, stirring frequently until well-combined, about 1 minute.

Add reduced wine mixture, scraping the bottom of the pot with a spoon to loosen browned bits.  Add ¼ teaspoon pepper, cooked chicken (and their juices) and cooked bacon.  Increase heat to high and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover pot and simmer until chicken is tender, about 25 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking time.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer chicken to a large bowl and tent with foil to keep warm.  Increase heat to medium-high and simmer until sauce is thick and glossy and measures about 3 ½ cups, about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in remaining 2 tablespoons butter and reserved 1 tablespoon wine.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Return chicken to pot.  Top with minced parsley to serve.