I know it’s been a week since the last update, but at least this one’s a twofer. I decided I wanted to try braising, which is a technique that’s largely new to me (I know, what a rookie) and Ad Hoc at Home had a recipe for Crispy Braised Chicken Thighs with Olives, Lemon and Fennel that looked pretty tasty.
I also found that a market near my office sold broccoli rabe. You can tell they don’t sell much of it since the cashier (who I’ve seen there for over a year now) had never even heard of rapini before. But they had it and it didn’t look too shabby so I decided to make it as a side dish.
I started off by getting the salted water for blanching the rapini started because my stove sucks and bringing that much water to a boil takes too long. Chef Keller recommends blanching vegetables in a large pot so that the water doesn’t lose the boil when you add the vegetables, so I used about 4 gallons. In the summer I typically use my King Kooker for things like crab boils, making beer, or whatever else requires more than a couple gallons of water to boil, but for now I’m forced to do it indoors. Then I started on the chicken. You begin by season the thighs with salt and sautéing them for a few minutes to brown the skin side.
You then briefly sauté the inside and set on a rack to wait.
Next you lower the heat and sauté onion, then garlic, then fennel, and cook until the fennel is crisp-tender.
Then pour in some white wine (I used a dry chardonnay I had from Chateau St. Jean) and simmer for a couple minutes to burn off the alcohol. Then stir in olives, pepper flakes, bay leaves, lemon zest, thyme, and some chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until the fennel is tender and season with salt.
After that you return the chicken to the pan and let it come back to a simmer. Drop it in the oven for ~20 minutes at 375° until cooked through. (I prodded mine with the Thermapen at 18 minutes and it was exactly ready to go). Then you finish it in the broiler for a couple minutes to brown.
Plate and garnish with parsley.
While the chicken was in the oven I cooked the trimmed broccoli rabe.
First I blanched it in the boiling water for a few minutes until it was “tender but slightly resistant to the tooth”. I’m not sure I got the texture just right but I decided to err on the side of undercooked since I was following up with a sauté and didn’t want the end result to be mushy.
Then I shocked the greens (immerse in ice water to reduce carryover cooking) and set to dry on paper towels.
Then I sautéed the garlic for 1 minute until lightly browned and crisp. I added a pinch of red pepper flakes, and the rapini and cook for a couple minutes to heat through. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
Overall it was quite delicious. I don’t eat too many sautéed greens so that was a rare and tasty treat. The chicken was quite perfect. Chef Keller says you could easily replace the Mediterranean seasonings with any theme and it would work, though I’m not really sure what else I’d try. My thoughts always initially go to Cajun food, but I’m not sure replacing the fennel with rice and the olives with crawfish would have the desired effect.
This was yet another incredibly easy dish that I plan to make more often. The point of this blog isn’t just to do the easy ones (though it’s been largely working out that way lately) so I promise I’ll get into some more taxing stuff soon. I might make something crazy this weekend if I get a few hours to spare.
