Ms. B. and I eat a lot of chicken, and I have quite a few recipes, most resulting from trial and error while trying to reproduce (or come close to) some dish I've had at a restaurant or friend's place. Now and again, I find a recipe online and follow it with varying degrees of faithfulness (usually, I go all kinds of nuts with such things, and I'm pretty sure that what I come up with is usually better than if I'd simply followed the recipe to the letter).
Last night, on a whim, I decided to try my hand at Chicken Dijon, which I'd never made before. I found a base recipe (where, I'll never remember), and fucked around with it until I came up with what turned out to be a winning formula. Now, most of my recipes are for fiery things (some of my Thai-based concoctions have on occasion been almost too much for me), but not always. The Chicken Dijon certainly wasn't loaded with heat, although it did have a pleasant little kick.
Feel free to try this (or screw around with it to your heart's content).
WHAT YOU NEED:
• 3 slices bacon
• 4–6 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 lb.)
• 2 c angel hair pasta (4 servings)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3 medium carrots, cut into chunks
• 1/4 c fresh thyme leaves, plus more for garnish
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 4 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/3 c white wine (I used Vermouth, since it was the nearest thing at hand)
• 1 c chicken broth
• 1 c half-and-half
• 2 tsp granulated sugar
• 3/4 c frozen green peas
• 1/4 c capers
• 4 to 6 Lemon wedges
WHAT YOU DO:
1) In a large skillet (I prefer cast iron), cook bacon until very crisp. Remove when done and crush into bits.
2) Add chicken, skin-side down; season to taste with salt and pepper and cook in the bacon fat on medium-high heat until skin is gold and crispy, about 8 minutes. Flip and cook for 5 minutes more. Transfer to a plate.
3) Add butter, onion,
garlic, carrots, thyme, coriander, and red pepper
flakes. Cook on medium-high heat, stirring frequently and scraping up any brown bits on
bottom of pan.
Stir in mustard, wine, chicken broth, half-and-half, and sugar. Cook until
mostly reduced, about 10 minutes.
4) While ingredients simmer, cut chicken and skin from bones into bite-size pieces. This is a good time to start cooking the angel hair.
5) Reduce heat to medium and return cut chicken
to pan. Simmer until sauce has thickened, about 10–12 minnutes. Add peas and capers and let simmer for another 3–4 minutes.
6) Plate the angel hair, and squeeze the juice from the lemon wedges directly onto the pasta. Ladle the chicken and sauce onto the pasta and garnish with thyme and crushed bacon bits.
Et voilà!