Braising is a great way to cook. With chicken, though, the price you pay is flabby skin. Keeping the skin above the surface of the liquid keeps it from softening. Braised flavour with crunch. Delicious. Perfectly cooked, tender chicken basted in that luscious sauce. It’s the kind of thing that can only come from delicately simmering chicken in a rich stock. A humble and yet wonderful dining experience. Comfort food.
Chicken with Calabrian chilies is better with thighs
I tend to braise thighs. Breasts work too. You can even mix them as long as you time it right (breasts go in after unless they are much bigger than the thighs). You have to have chicken on bones with skin though – there’s no point doing this with boneless, skinless chicken. Calabrian chilies add a bit of salty zing to this dish. There not particularly hot – so don’t worry about that. Maybe a bit hotter than BBQ potato chips. I don’t know why they aren’t the next big thing (yet) but they are really tasty. You can infuse oil with them for a nice spicy oil that is killer on pizza or bruscetta. You can mix it into soup, a pot of white beans beans or maybe a lamb stew. Or you can use it in this dish. You can find them at Italian grocers.
