Thursday, October 23, 2008

French onion-style chicken



I just made this up. It's in my oven, keeping warm, RIGHT NOW. It seems to be pretty darn tasty as far as I can tell. But, then again, the combination of onions and wine and leeks and garlic and butter and beef stock all soaked into chicken seems to me like it just couldn't be bad.

Score extra Martha points if you have a dutch oven AND use it on a regular basis! Does she have her own brand of dutch ovens? Because if so, I'd so be all over that. Credit for the concept goes to my father-in-law, Ron Haygood. Not sure where he picked this one up.

-2-4 chicken breasts, skin on
-1 can of french onion soup
-1 leek, diced
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1 tsp pepper
-2 tbsp wine (I used white because that is what I had open, but I bet that a red would taste better because it's a key ingredient in french onion soup)
-2 tbsp butter

Pre-heat oven to 350.

In a dutch oven over medium heat, sautee the leek in the butter for about 5-10 minutes. Add the garlic and pepper. Cook together for another 2-3 minutes, then add the wine (to get up the brown bits). Add the canned soup and let it all come to a boil for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Place the chicken in the dutch oven, breast-side down. Cover and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the chicken is done. Take the chicken out of the pot and set it aside (remove skin before eating).

Strain the solids from the sauce and bring it back to a boil for another few minutes, until it thickens and you can use it almost like a gravy. Heck, try adding some Wondra flour and make it into a gravy, if you feel like it. That would probably be really good...if you try it, let me know how it came out.

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