What's Cookin' Wednesday

I wanted to start a new way to share recipes. We do like to try new recipes, we just don't always do it. A few days ago we made something DELICIOUS. We made it once before with our friends Natalie and Ry. (Well, Natalie rescued our amateur selves and practically made it for us..). That being said, I'm going to try to share a new recipe with you every Wednesday. Pretend you didn't see that this is really posted on Thursday. (it's my first week, give me a break.)

We call it...
Chicken in Riesling
think.. coq au vin... just with chicken instead of rooster and white wine instead of red!

We found the recipe once upon a time when we had some Riesling at home and wanted to cook with it. So, epicurious to the rescue, we found this. What? You haven't heard of epicurious? GET IT GIRL. There's a free app for iPhones, and there's a website. Search virtually billions of recipes and it will create a grocery list for you too. Yea. It's pretty cool.

Here's what you need:

1 whole chicken (about 3 1/2 pound), backbone discarded and chicken cut French style into 8 pieces (We used about 3 large breast pieces, cut into thirds and 6 small thigh pieces, I didn't want this to be my first time butchering a chicken.)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

4 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only), finely chopped (2 cups)

2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot (We omitted these... I have an onion issue and I already compromised with the leeks.)

4 medium carrots, halved diagonally (We cut ours into thirds... to make for easier eating.)

1 cup dry white wine (preferably Alsatian Riesling) (We used Chateau St. Michelle Riesling)

1 1/2 pound small (2-inch) red potatoes (It should tell you ahead of time, but you should peel these)

2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley (We used freeze dried parsley that we already had.) 

1/2 cup crème fraîche or heavy cream (I always have heavy cream, so that's what we used.)

Fresh lemon juice to taste

Ready? 
Preheat oven to 350*.


Pat chicken dry, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Heat oil and 1 T of butter in oven-safe pot over med-high heat until the foam goes down. Brown the chicken in two batches, turning once, a total of 10 minutes per batch. Transfer to a plate to rest.

the first batch: breast pieces

after we turned them... YUM

second batch: thighs

Now, pour off the fat from the pan and cook the leeks, [shallots], 1/4 teaspoon of salt in the remaining 2 T of butter over med-low heat for about 5-7 minutes. 

Add the chicken, carrots and wine and boil until the liquid is reduced by half. (3-4 minutes) Cover and braise in oven for 20-25 minutes until chicken is cooked through.

Generously cover peeled, whole potatoes with cold water in 2-3 qt. saucepan and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Bring to boil and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, return to pan and coat with parsley.

Stir heavy cream into chicken mixture and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Add potatoes. Serve!

Ohhh, yea. 

This is a delicious meal that you can use to impress your friends or cook for your date. It's not that difficult, but it takes a little time.. plan accordingly. Allow a good hour to make this. 

Bon appetit!