It's quiz time: what's "braising"? Well, you're going to learn that with this recipe. Braising is cooking with a moist heat. How do you do that? First you "sear" the chicken (another new term! keep reading), then you surround it with broth, cover the pot and either let it finish cooking in the oven or on top of the stove over a very, very low heat. (For this recipe, we cook on top of the stove.) Braising relies on heat, time and moisture to tenderize the chicken - or any meat, for that matter. If you make a stew or a pot roast, you're braising.
"Searing" means that you're going to quickly brown the chicken over a medium-high heat. Searing locks in flavor and moistness. To sear the chicken, you add it to hot oil in a hot pan and you should hear it sizzle the moment it hits the pan. If it doesn't sizzle, the pan isn't hot enough. Remove the chicken and wait another 30 seconds or so. My instructions say to cook "undisturbed". That means don't be trying to turn the pieces over every few seconds. That's the surest way to end up with the chicken sticking to the pan. The chicken needs time for that nice golden brown crust to form. Once that crust is there, turning the pieces over is easy. If you try to turn the pieces over and the chicken sticks, it hasn't cooked long enough yet.
You'll have better success searing if you use a NOT nonstick pan. I won't go into all of the technical details, but the nonstick coating is just not conducive to forming the nice golden brown crust that you are trying to achieve.
This recipe introduces you to multi-tasking. While you're cooking the chicken, you'll chop the vegetables. This saves a bit of time overall, since you're using that down time while waiting for the chicken. If you did all the chopping before you even started cooking the chicken, you'd only be adding to the total time for the recipe.
It's good to read a recipe all the way through to figure out how you can save some time. I always look for things like "let simmer for 10 minutes" and then see what ingredients I can prepare while that's going on. If the onions don't have to be in the simmering pot, then you can bet I'll be chopping those during that 10 minutes. I do try to write my recipes with these time-saving tips built right in to the instructions so you don't even have to think about it. But pay attention to what I have you do while other things are going on, and get a feel for it. Then you'll be able to apply time-saving steps to recipes from (gulp!) other sources!
Now a little bit about this dish. One of my favorite dishes that my grandmother made when I was a child was simply "chicken and peas". So when I first saw this recipe, I had to try it. It certainly is a bit more "gourmet" than my grandmother's recipe but it's easy to make. I think it's a wonderfully satisfying comfort meal. And did you notice? It's another one pot meal! Add some bread and you've got a complete meal.
Remember from our recipe for Chicken with Peppers & Hummus that I explained why we used chicken thighs (dark meat) instead of breasts (white meat)? To keep the chicken from drying out? Well for this recipe, you might think of substituting breasts for the thighs because of the moist cooking method. You could, but ... the thighs are a natural for braising because they stay nice and juicy. And the dark meat goes well with the sweetness of the peas and the slight acidity of the artichokes. And, most importantly, I use thighs because that's what my Nonna used. Chicken breasts were way too expensive!
You may notice that at the bottom of each of our recipes there is a credit for the source of the recipe but it always says "adapted from". What does "adapted" mean? Well, for this recipe, I substituted boneless, skinless chicken thighs for thighs with skin and bones. It's easier to eat them, and you cut out a lot of fat. I almost always reduce the amount of salt and fat in recipes, unless they are from a spa cookbook or something like Cooking Light magazine. In that case, the reduction has already been done. |
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