Recipe Chianti Braised Stuffed Chicken Thighs

CraigC

Guru
Joined
1 Dec 2017
Local time
2:23 AM
Messages
4,394
Location
SE Florida
full





Ingredients
4oz sweet, Italian sausage, bulk or about 1 link, casing removed and crumbled
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs from day old loaf, no crust
1/2 fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 large shallot or equal amount of red onion, minced
1 large egg
2 Tbsp chopped, fresh parsley
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
8 large boneless, skinless chicken thighs

2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup chopped pancetta, guanciale or bacon
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 750 ml bottle of chianti, mid range and drinkable
3 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes in puree
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried basil

Directions

1) Mix first 9 ingredients in a medium bowl.
2) Place 1 chicken thigh on a work surface.
3) Fill the area where the bone was removed with 2 Tbsp of stuffing mix. Wrap the thigh around filling and tie with butchers twine. Repeat with remaining thighs.
4) Sprinkle with S&P.
5) Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over med-high.
6) Add pancetta and saute until lightly brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer to papper towels to drain.
7) Add chicken to the pan and cook in the drippings until golden on all sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
8) Add onion and garlic to pan and saute until tender, about 10 minutes.
9) Return pancetta to pan, add wine, simmer until mixture is reduced to 2 cups, about 12 minutes.
10) Add broth, tomatoes, bay leaf, basil and chicken thighs. Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered until chicken is cooked through. About 35 minutes
(Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly. Chill until cold, then cover and keep chilled. Rewarm over medium heat before continuing)
11) Transfer chicken to bowl and cover to keep warm.
12) Simmer sauce until slightly thickened and reduced to 4 cups, about 10 minutes. Season with S&P.

The recipe calls for serving over egg noodles, but I think polenta or risoto milanese would work great.
 
Last edited:
This was really good. I asked Craig if the work making it was worth it since it took him a good bit of time and he said yes that it wasn't hard to make, just the tying up of the bundles gave him problems. I usually do things like that, but was busy doing something else yesterday.
 
The only danger I can see in this recipe is getting an entire bottle of good chianti into the pan.:drink:

That is why I buy a lower end, still drinkable, chianti to cook with and buy Banfi Classico Reserva to drink. I would have bought the Ruffino Classico Ducale Gold Label to drink, but they didn't have any.:(
 
DAE98ED0-6942-4588-ABBA-372C60E3BDB1.jpeg


A vast oversimplification of what you made, with quite a few changes, but I like what I did here.

I used bacon, and I sautéed onions in the bacon grease as the bacon was reducing. Then, I chopped up the bacon, and put it inside the chicken breast. I also stuffed it with an ultralight pesto sauce that I made (with stock in place of oil), and I cooked the chicken breast in the pan, which still had bacon grease in it.

I’d forgotten how much I liked wine reductions. This worked extremely well with the other flavors.

Thanks for the inspiration!
 
Last edited:
I’d forgotten how much I liked wine reductions.

Your version looks great too! Yes - I forget sometimes how good a wine reduction can be. An interesting point given your weight watching - how do you calculate the calories in a wine reduction. Some but not all the alcohol cooks off so presumably that reduces the calories compared to the original amount of wine used.
 
Your version looks great too! Yes - I forget sometimes how good a wine reduction can be. An interesting point given your weight watching - how do you calculate the calories in a wine reduction. Some but not all the alcohol cooks off so presumably that reduces the calories compared to the original amount of wine used.
I figured the ending volume was what I'd use, even though I don't know how much of the calories come from the alcohol and how much comes from the sugars that remain.
 
I have a ton of homemade wine at the house. I'd love to try and turn some of that into the occasional reduction. Can you start another thread and post a recipe, suggestions, ect.... I tried this last week and it was a big ole fat failure.
I see that you did start one a few weeks ago:

https://www.cookingbites.com/threads/wine-reduction.12550/

I'm hardly an expert, but there are some good suggestions in that thread. Maybe it could use a bump to make it visible.
 
Back
Top Bottom