Braised Potatoes & Chicken Thighs With Scallion Butter Sauce

 It appears that we got through that atmospheric river with minimal damage. I think we sustained a knocked over trellising pole that is cemented into a 5 gallon bucket and our arch blew over.

We will rebuild.

I did get potatoes planted and I planted out some of my old wooden raised beds with spring greens, radishes and turnips. I planted various types. I am going to stagger planting and I'll seed more stuff in 2 weeks from now...fill in the blanks, so to speak. I do love to practice the art of cramscaping!

In the meantime, I needed to figure out what to make for dinner tonight. I had originally thought about making Chicken Cacciatore but, over the years, I've had that so many times that I'm, quite frankly, rather bored with that recipe. I knew I wanted a braised dish but I didn't want to use canned tomatoes. I can only eat so much citrus because I have a sensitivity to citrus and I've been eating oranges like crazy.

This recipe evolved from there.

I even dug out my cast iron skillet so that I could properly braise in it. I have a small 8-inch skillet and it works perfectly for portion control for the 2 of us. With this recipe, you'll definitely need portion control. It's that friggin' delicious!

I prepped everything ahead of time. There's bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, diced red onion, sliced lemon, lemon juice, butter, garlic and scallion. You'll also need to peel up a large baking potato, as well. You're going to boil the potato until it's barely fork tender. 

The thighs get browned up in a cast iron skillet (use one that can go into the oven). Brown for 5 minutes on one side, turn them over and cook for 5 minutes on the other side. By this time, your potato should be cooked. Just drain it and set aside to cool just a bit.

Don't rush it. Let them brown. You'll thank me later when you taste them. 

Once the chicken is nicely browned, add in the other ingredients and pour in the chicken broth. Don't add the lemon juice or butter yet. Reserve those. 

I covered my skillet with foil and popped it into a preheated 400 degree oven. I set a timer for 35 minutes. The timing made perfectly cooked, tender, fall apart chicken.

Melt the butter in the hot skillet once it comes out of the oven and drizzle with lemon juice. Enjoy!

Braised Potatoes & Chicken Thighs With Scallion Butter Sauce

Serves 2

4 chicken thighs
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large russet baking size potato, peeled and cut into 8 pieces
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 small red onion, diced
French grey salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup chicken broth
Juice of half of a lemon and the other half sliced thinly
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 thinly sliced scallions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Boil potato until barely fork tender. Drain and set aside.
Heat olive oil in a cast iron skillet that can also go into the oven. Season chicken on both sides, to taste, with freshly cracked black pepper and French grey salt. Brown chicken, skin side down,  in skillet, for 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Turn over and brown the other side.
Once chicken is golden brown, nestle the potato pieces in with the chicken, sprinkle the onions, garlic and lemon slices over the top. Add 1/4 cup chicken broth. Bring to a simmer, cover skillet and put in preheated oven for 35 minutes or until chicken is 165 degrees on a food thermometer.
Remove skillet from oven. Remove foil cover. Gently lift a piece of chicken up and add the butter and very gently move butter around until it is melted. Drizzle lemon juice over the top and sprinkle with scallions.
Serve.

Belgian Fried Chicken

 We're all moved! We moved exactly a month ago. A lot has happened. We went through a pretty bad flood just before we moved. Bob's car got flooded. Our insurance totaled it. Ten days later, we were fully moved out of the RV park. Good riddance to the drama and other nonsense. It's so peaceful up here and we're thoroughly enjoying it.
Here are some of the flood photos. We are sitting up on a bluff, 260 feet above a creek. I don't ever have to worry about going through a flood, like this, again. 

The water came up and receded all within an 18 hour time frame. I have never went through anything like that before and I hope I never go through anything like that again.

 
I'm not going to miss this at all. Nope. Never again.

Now, without further adieu, coming to you from Kelpie Kapers Farm, I bring you one of our most favorite chicken recipes called Belgian Fried Chicken.
First off, this is not a diet friendly recipe. If you're looking for something healthy, you'll want to cruise on past. We don't eat this all that often, maybe 2 or 3 times per year. If you can use decadent to describe a chicken dish, this one would fit the bill. 

First off, there's not really any measurements for this recipe. The only thing I really measure, and it's haphazard at that, is the butter. I just use 1/2 a stick of unsalted butter and it doesn't matter how many pieces of chicken I plan on making. Just know that you're going to be frying chicken, over a low heat, for a long time, in butter.
Do I have your attention yet?

You simply salt and pepper your chicken pieces generously. Then you shake in plain ol' flour. Don't add anything to it, just leave it plain.
You won't believe how tasty this is with such minimal seasoning. There's no herbs or spices in this besides salt and pepper. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

This is why I call this "Belgian" fried chicken. This is a sliced up Belgian endive. If you don't want to use an endive, you could slice up some mushrooms or whatever vegetable you like. I've done this with just onions and parsley and it was delicious.

After the chicken browns, slowly, over low heat, for 15 minutes on each side (a total of 30 minutes), covered, you scatter the endive around the pan, put the lid on and let it go for another 15 minutes. So, yes, 45 minutes being fried in butter. 

The endive cooks way down and the chicken gets really brown. This is when it gets hit with the zest and juice of 1 lemon. So, now, it's being fried in lemon butter. Let that cook for just a few minutes. And pour in roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of heavy cream, depending on how many chicken pieces you're making. 

Delicious!

Belgian Fried Chicken
*serves 2

4 pieces of bone-in, skin-on chicken
1/2 cup flour
Salt & pepper, to taste
1/4 cup unsalted butter
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 Belgian endive sliced
1/4 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper the chicken pieces generously. Coat each piece in plain white flour.
Melt butter in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Fry the chicken, in the butter, for 15 minutes, covered. Turn the chicken over, cover, and fry another 15 minutes. Add endive, cover, fry for another 15 minutes. Add lemon juice and zest and cook for 3-5 minutes more. Add heavy cream and flip the chicken pieces around so that they are coated in the sauce and the heavy cream mixes in.

I turned these into bowls with rice and boiled asparagus. Bob really enjoyed these. He gets his final set of impressions tomorrow, so, hopefully, I can make something crunchy for dinner soon. Korean Honey Butter Chicken is on the top of my list!
Anyhow, if you need some comfort food, this Belgian Fried Chicken will fit that ticket, for sure.
Enjoy!