Braised Chicken Thighs with Porcini in Garlic Sage Cream Sauce

When it comes to fowl, I've always been a fan of dark meat. It's also a good fit if you're trying to eat low carb. It looks a little sloppy, but it's really good. If you're not doing the low-carb thing, I think it would make an excellent sauce for pasta.

How to after the jump.



Approximate prep time: 1 hour, but you can ignore it for the 45 minutes it's in the oven.

Ingredients:

8 Garlic cloves, peeled
A good handfull of sage
A good handfull of dried porcini mushrooms
8 Chicken thighs (boneless, skinless in this case)
Olive Oil
White wine
Chicken stock
Dijon Mustard, preferably Maile
Anchovy paste (optional) or worcestershire sauce.
Heavy cream
Salt and pepper (naturally)
A dutch (french) oven

Preheat the oven to 400F while starting the other prep.

Remove the garlic's paper, wash the sage, and chop the dried porcini in to roughly 1-inch chunks. Your stuff should look vaguely like this:



Season the chicken thighs (both sides) with salt and pepper.



While you're doing that, heat your dutch oven to medium high with a bit of olive oil. Once it's hot, brown the chicken thighs a bit. Remember, we're not cooking these through, just adding a bit of color. Like Gordon Ramsay says, no color, no flavor:



Make sure to hit both sides, then reserve the chicken. At this point, deglaze the pan with some white wine. This will loosen all of the awesome brown chunks from the bottom of the pan:



Once the wine cooks down a little, add the sage, porcini, and garlic. The dried porcini will suck the wine up like a sponge, and the mixture will start to smell pretty fantastic:



At this point, add the chicken back in and stir to combine. Time to bust out the chicken stock. Add enough to just barely cover the chicken, etc.



Bring to a low boil, cover, then pop it in the 400F over for 45 minutes or so. when it's done, you should have something like this:



Reserve the chicken again. It should be pretty much falling apart at this point:



After pulling out the chicken, I like to take a masher to the garlic to help it integrate into the sauce. You could do this with a wooden or plastic spoon too. Remember, no metal in the Le Creuset!



Turn the heat up to medium, and bring to a boil. At this point, add about a cup and half of heavy cream, as well as a tablespoon of the mustard. This would also be the point to add anchovy paste (maybe about a teaspoon). I was out, so I used worcestershire sauce.



Reduce the mixture by about half, or until you're happy with the consistency. When the sauce cools, it'll thicken a little, so err on the side of a little too watery. Make sure to stir constantly to avoid the sauce burning to the bottom. Kill the heat, and the chicken back in. I like to shred the chicken, but you can keep the thighs intact if you prefer. Done!