What kind of chicken you used? Similar to poulet de Bresse ?

We have chemical chickens in the USA. We need to mask the chemical tastes by using a lot of seasonings.

dcarch

If only we could get dry cider here! Cider (of a sort) has become more popular here in the U.S. Mostly sweet, and never really dry.

Chemical chicken is a choice. Many other options.

That does sound good. Dry cider should be stocked on a shelf near a good beer supply. I use it for a simple smothered pork chop dish.

I agree simple is often the easiest and best recipes.

A spatchcocked whole chicken over a thick bed of wild fresh thyme with all its woody stems, lots of lemon slices, on the far end of a grill off the direct heat. On parchment lined foil.

Chicken Marbella comes to mind.

One of favorite skinless chicken thigh dishes is so simple. 12 thighs single layer in a lidded saute pan, stovetop, covered with a large sliced onion, (no oil, no liquid) simmered lid on for 45 min-1hour. (will start to render juices in just a few minutes) Place chicken on a sheet pan in the oven350. Stick blend the pan juices and add handful of whole olives, lemon slices, a half dozen dates halved, one large sliced leek or 2 small ones. Simmer 15-20 min. Add the roasted chicken back to the pan and serve. Great leftovers.

Islay, I'll have to give that a try. I agree simple can often be just as good as more involved.

Chicken thighs with artichokes and mushrooms comes to mind...a simple family favorite.

That sounds very good! I generally go simple with chicken, too. OTOH, I love a good traditional mole with chicken, too, and that has at least 17 ingredients. I don't know the proper name for it, but it's the one everyone usually means. :) (mole just means sauce, but undifferentiated is the particular one people mean).

For me, the "rules" aren't so important. Like chefs on TV always say no cheese with fish, while others are presenting traditional, well loved, well received dishes with cheese on fish. Others say no more than five ingredients, not including salt, pepper and oil, but then others interpret that to mean five jars with a hundred ingredients between them.

I do like complex flavors, with many notes, but unless I'm making refrigerator stew (using everything up), I expect each ingredient to have a purpose and contribution to the whole. The chicken salad I made for Mother's Day had a lot of ingredients: Chicken, celery, scallions, orange bell pepper, sugar snap peas, walnuts and spicy dill pickles, plus a season blend with half a dozen herbs and spices, fresh thyme and mayonnaise. That covers crunchy, soft, earthy, hot, sharp, sweet, acidic, rich, piquant and green. It was really good. :)

Your simple, rich dinner sounds really good too.

I like simple (often extremely simple) and I also like complex - I do not have a preference over one or the other or consider one to be necessarily better than the other - it just add to the variety. I get tired of too much of any one thing (except my Habanero sauce). I generally do not do any braising, but I do cook chicken in a skillet from time to time.

The liquor store that we go to has dry English cider (Aspall), and so I'll look for that the next time we go. It also has Wandering Aengus Dry Oaked Cider and Golden State Mightly Dry Hard Cider (both domestic), but I don't know the difference. The Wandering Aengus is more expensive than Aspall, but the Golden State is about 1/3 the cost. I've only had sweet hard cider, but I do have Calvados as well as Cognac on hand. I do not use either very frequently.

Your recipe sounds very interesting. When you simmer the chicken at the end, is it covered or uncovered? Do you ever do this in the oven?

Dcarch, you can buy any type of chicken here. I would not buy battery chickens-i don't buy organic as it's too expensive but there are other standards that we can trust.

Sleeve and Chloebud, your dishes sound good. I'll have to try them.

It's true that sometimes you need and want complex flavours. I feel that many recipes have fighting ingredients, though. Plllog, your salad sounds lovely. Lovely little explosions of flavour in your mouth.

Lars, i would start with the lid on then off to reduce the sauce a little. It doesn't need long cooking so I don't think I'd bother putting the oven on for it.

I feel that many recipes have fighting ingredients...

Well...there are a lot of bad recipes out there! So...that leads me to the conclusion that the more ingredients there are, the better the recipe has to be. The simpler the recipe is the better the ingredients have to be.

:D

But sometimes there are some combination that you think, "No way" but then you try them and it's "Yum!" years ago I attended a wedding that had a canapes reception. One canape was those Chinese prawn toasts, dipped in maple syrup. Awesome!

And last year when we were in Bali we went )twice) to a restaurant whose chef has major skills in delicious off the wall combinations. He is just brilliant in knowing what unlikely flavours will go together and make something ridiculously good.

I see many recipes where someone has thrown the whole pantry into it. Lol

Good ingredients is a question of good health too, not just flavour. Also, animal welfare.

A quality chicken, for example, isn't cheap so needs treating with respect and I want to taste the chicken.

Combinations can be fun. I recently had tune with prunes and chillies and it was delicious. Wasn't looking forward to it to start, but was amazed.

My brother bought some English dry cider (Aspall) at the liquor store, and so now I just need to buy the chicken parts to make this. We do prefer thighs. I'll probably use Calvados instead of Cognac because I have more of it and don't have many uses for it. I'll have to get a green vegetable to have with it, and I'll probably also make rice.

I hear you, Islay! I prefer simplicity as well & tend to disregard recipes that have very long lists of ingredients/seasonings, &/or many steps in the preparation. Also, I have a very small kitchen w/ very little counter space (& no dishwasher) , so I'd rather not have to deal with numerous bowls, pans, utensils, etc.

IMPO, there's no substitute for the taste of good quality meats, fruits & vegetables. I grow a number of herbs that I use fresh as well: marjoram, parsley, rosemary. garlic chives, Egyptian onions, oregano, basil, mint, and bay leaves.

I rarely use alcohol in my cooking, but when I do, it's mainly bourbon, or a nutty dry sherry that I use in place of regular wine.

I made this recipe yesterday, and the only change I made was to omit the cream at the end. I also used only thighs without the legs. While the chicken was very tender and moist, it was extremely bland. I didn't use the most expensive chicken, and I think this was part of the problem, but I will not be making this recipe again the same way. The result was very similar to poached chicken but with less flavor. When I poach chicken, I add more herbs plus some vegetables. This recipe might have been more to my liking if I had added some Herbes de Provence, but then it would have been Chicken Provençal, I think. The thyme did not add enough flavor IMO. The cider and Calvados did not add much in the way of flavor either, and the Calvados flamed up much higher than I expected - I probably should have used less. I calculated 30cl to be 3-1/2 tbsp.

I have leftovers, and I will see how they taste when reheated. I think they might be a bit better after soaking in the leftover sauce. I can see how it might be good if you have an extremely flavorful chicken, but I still think that roasting brings out the flavor more. I did spend a good deal of time browning the chicken first, and so I don't think that was the problem. I did remove a bit of the excess fat after browning, and I used that to make another sauce that I put on the rice and broccoli that I served with it.

Islay, I like both, but I agree that some recipes have so many ingredients in which the flavors get muddled. On the other hand, some just have lovely depths of flavor. Depends on the recipe.

Simple flavors with simple ingredients are so good too. Again, depends on the flavors used.

chloebud, that certainly looks delicious, but I'm a sucker for artichokes.

Sleevendog, I can almost smell the spatchcocked chicken on the bed of thyme, indirect heat... I just happen to have too much thyme now (oh, how I wish I would say "too much time!") and if the rain ever clears...