I love being able to share recipe ideas with my mom.  She’s taught me so much over the years and I still find myself learning new things every time we talk about food.  On this most recent visit back to Houston she and I decided to put something together in the dutch oven I gave her and dad for Christmas a few years ago.  Channeling some of the basics of Julia Child’s famous beef bourguignon, we created a chicken dish that started with cooking bacon and searing skinless (bone in) chicken thighs and then combining the two with onions, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes and white wine.   The finished dish was simple but really tasty.  And, it was even better the next day when we reheated it for leftovers.  Here are some of the steps with pictures.  The full recipe is at the bottom.  I hope you enjoy it.

Start by cooking bacon until just before it gets crispy.  Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon so that you keep the drippings in the pan…you’ll be using it with a little olive oil to sear the chicken.

With the chicken, we combined flour with salt, pepper, garlic powder and placed it in the bowl.  Rinse the chicken in cold water and dry it completely with paper towels.  Then dredge the chicken in the flour mixture until fully coated.

We added a bit of olive oil to the bacon drippings and increased the heat to high.  Once hot, we seared the chicken on both sides to give it some nice color.

After doing the chick in batches, we lowered the heat to sauté the onions, celery and carrots.
 

We seasoned the vegetables with a bit of oregano.  And, we went easy on the salt with this dish…but you can certainly add a bit more salt and pepper at this stage.

Once the vegetables were tender, added tomato paste and then put the chicken back in the pot.  We topped the chicken with the petite tomatoes, chicken stock and white wine, covered it, and put it in a 325 degree F oven for an hour and a half.  We then added the potatoes and give it another 30 minutes.  Letting it sit for 15-20 minutes uncovered was the last step before serving.

Dutch Oven Chicken
a collaboration with mom

Ingredients

8 Chicken Thighs, skinless, bone in
3 slices Bacon, chopped
2 tsp Olive Oil
1 lg Onion, chopped
2 lg Carrots, sliced
2 Celery Stalks, sliced
1 cu All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Dried Oregano
2 tbl Tomato Paste
1 can Petite Tomatoes, 15 oz size
2 cu Chicken Stock
1 cu White Wine
3 med Potatoes, peeled and cut into 1” Pieces
Method

Combine flour, salt, garlic powder and black pepper in a bowl. Rinse the chicken thighs in cold water and then dry them thoroughly with paper towels. Roll the chicken pieces in the flour mixture until all sides are fully coated. Set aside.

Place bacon in dutch oven over medium high heat and stir until bacon is cooked through but not yet crispy. Remove from pot with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add olive oil to the bacon drippings in the dutch oven and increase heat to high. When oil is hot, place four chicken thighs in the pan, and sear for about 4 minutes per side or until nicely browned. Remove from dutch oven and repeat with the remaining four pieces.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Remove the second set of chicken thighs and lower heat to medium low. Add onions and stir to remove brown bits from bottom of the dutch oven. Sauté for about 5 minutes. Add carrots and celery and sauté for an additional 5 minutes. Add bacon, tomato paste and oregano to the mixture and stir to combine. Arrange chicken pieces on top. Pour petite tomatoes over the chicken. Add chicken stock and white wine. Cover dutch oven and place in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. Slide dutch oven out on the oven rack and remove the lid. Arrange potatoes on top. If mixture seems dry add a little more chicken stock. Cover and return to oven for an additional 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and let rest for about 15-20 minutes before removing the top and serving.