Braised Chicken
Wine Braised Chicken with Shallots and Pancetta
Yay! It’s our first post. Being new to this, we didn’t want our first recipe to be too intimidating but something we hadn’t made before. Being fans of cast iron everything we came across Fine Cooking’s, Wine-Braised Chicken with Shallots and Pancetta. This recipe embodies everything we do on a day to day basis, chicken, wine and good food. Chicken can be a little mundane
but as we read through the recipe it states this is a quick modern version of a classic French recipe Coq-au-Vin. Certainly, this was something we could tackle, so we headed to our local grocery store and picked up our ingredients.
There was nothing too crazy on the ingredient list, some chicken, pancetta, shallots, fennel and carrots, herbs, wine and stock. Although, recipe called for ¾ inch cubes of pancetta, we went with a pre-packaged diced pancetta. We didn’t think it would impact the flavors too much and in reflection, there were morsels more to go around. We purchased all the ingredients for about $40 and didn’t even have to go to a specialty store, perfect.
Arriving to the Let’s Cook That kitchen, also known as Eddy’s house, we started on the recipe and began to prep the ingredients. The instructions were clear and there wasn’t’ any “cheffy” terminology, except the fact neither one of us had ever broken down a bulb of fennel. A quick YouTube search took care of that. It turns out its quite simple, you just have to remove the stems, halve the bulb and remove the hard center core and chop away. After our quick tutorial, we continued to follow the steps to reproduce what we assumed would be our delicious masterpiece. About an hour later we were all done! Our loved ones, the hungry monsters hovering over our shoulders, gathered around to try our food. We proudly plated our dish (making everyone wait while we took our photo) and voila! Dinner was served.
This recipe was pretty good even though we both felt it was missing something. It may have been the substitution of the diced instead of cubed pancetta, but we doubt it. We both agreed that the culprit may be the selection of wine. The recipe called for a dry German Riesling but the one we used seemed to fall short against the sweetness of the carrots and shallots. Next time we make this recipe, we would use a bolder wine to enhance the flavors a bit. We may even add a component to the sauce like crème fraiche, cream or even a splash of balsamic vinegar to add a little extra oomph.
Don’t get us wrong, this is a nice recipe to make for your friends and family without breaking the bank. Browning and braising chicken may be a little too time consuming for a weeknight but would be perfect for Sunday night dinner or a nice dinner party.
