Chicken Fricassee

Last week my brother called me and said, "Stop whatever you're doing. This is important." I got a little worried so I pulled the car over and parked. Then he told me he was at the store and needed to know what he could buy that would cook quickly and goes well with rice and vegetables. To someone like me, that is SUCH a hard question to answer because there are TOO MANY answers! We settled on salmon fillets sauteed in a hot pan with whatever seasonings he could find in the cupboard.

But first he asked me how to make "that one chicken thing Daddy and you used to make when we were little that has wine." (Chicken fricassee.) I explained the process, simple enough, but he didn't have time to buy wine because in NY alcohol isn't sold in grocery stores so he'd have to go all the way to another place for that....it is so lame.

Growing up, my dad made chicken fricassee a lot. This is a cooking method whereby meat is browned, then braised in a liquid until very tender. We prefer using chicken thighs because they will not get too dry during the long cooking period. And our favorite cooking liquid is white wine.

Every week I make a list of all the random "stuff" in my fridge that I need to use up--left overs from previous meals, extra veggies, etc. This time I realized I had all the stuff needed to make chicken fricassee--baby carrots, chicken thighs (from the deep freezer), two partial bottles of old champagne from weeks ago, three giant mushrooms, and red onion.

So here's how its done...you should make some!

1. Brown skinless chicken thighs over medium high heat in a pot with a little oil.
2. When you turn the meat to brown the second side, add some minced onion. 3. Remove the meat to a plate. Add the veggies, and a touch more oil if the pan it very dry. Turn the heat down to avoid burning the browned meat residue on the bottom of the pan. The veggies will release a lot of moisture quickly so it shouldn't be a problem.
Stir, and add a pinch of whatever seasonings you like--we tend to use bay leaf, thyme, celery seed, pepper, minced parsley.
4. Add enough wine (or water/broth-wine mixture) so that it comes about half way up the sides of the meat.5. Return the chicken to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 30 minutes. You'll know when the meat is done when it starts falling off the bone. You should still have some liquid in the pot.After browning the meat, you could always dump everything into a crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours.

This is super good served over rice.