Monday Night Dinner

Last Dinner of 2012 – Dinner, December 11th

Chicken Carbonnade
(Fancy) Roasted Brussels Sprouts (with Chestnuts, Dried Cherries & a Maple Glaze)
Bread

Chicken Carbonnade
(serves 8-10)

The classic Beef Carbonnade is made with a dark beer (I usually use Guinness), you want something a little lighter for the chicken version but definitely not anything that could be described as an ale. Anything too hoppy will just get bitter as it cooks, you almost want a medium weight sweetish beer (pumpkin beer if you have it on hand is very very good).

2 strips bacon, diced
4 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 ½ lb mushrooms, sliced
3 lb onions, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp tomato paste
(generous) 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
(scant) ¼ tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
2-4 Tbsp flour (depending on how thick you like your stew)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
12 oz (pumpkin) beer (see note above)
¾ cup chicken stock
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 orange, juiced

Saute the bacon in a large dutch oven until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crispy. Remove the bacon and drain on paper towels. Drain off most of the bacon fat and reserve.

Saute the mushrooms in the remaining fat in the pan until they brown. Remove and reserve.

Trim the fat from the chicken thighs (you should end up with a generous 3 lb of chicken at this point), and cut each thigh in half or thirds depending on how large a thigh it is. Season with salt & pepper. In batches, using reserved bacon fat, brown the chicken in the pot. Remove & reserve.

Saute the onions and garlic in the pan (you shouldn’t need more fat at this point, but if you do add a little more of the bacon fat), scraping up any browned bits. Saute until golden brown.

Stir in the mustard, balsamic vinegar, tomato paste, cloves and cinnamon. Cook for 30 seconds. Sprinkle with the flour (I started with 2 Tbsp and then thickened the stew with a flour slurry later). Cook for 30 seconds. Return the chicken, mushrooms and bacon to the pot and stir to combine. Add the beer, chicken stock, thyme and bay leaves. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 35-40 minutes.

At this point you can either turn off the heat, cool and refrigerate overnight (which I recommend because like all stews this gets better if left to hang out overnight), or you can continue as below.

If you’ve refrigerated the stew overnight bring it up to a simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes to reheat the meat. Add the orange juice, adjust the seasonings to taste, and thicken further with a flour slurry* if desired.

Serve.

* In a small bowl whisk together as much flour as you want to add with a few ladles of hot liquid from the stew. Then stir that slurry back into the stew and allow to cook for about 10 minutes to thicken and loose the raw flour taste. If you try and whisk the flour directly into the stew you’re going to end up with lumps.

(Fancy) Roasted Brussels Sprouts (with Chestnuts, Dried Cherries & a Maple Glaze)
(serves about 8)

I do not recommend getting too fancy and using tiny baby Brussels sprouts unless you have about 2 hours to kill and nothing better to do with your time.

3-4 lb (large) Brussels sprouts, trimmed & halved
Olive oil
1 orange, juiced
Salt/pepper
Garam masala (or cinnamon)
1 cup roasted (peeled) chestnuts, halved
½ cup dried cherries
2-3 Tbsp maple syrup

Preheat oven to 425.

Season the trimmed & halved Brussels sprouts generously with salt, pepper and garam masala (or cinnamon). Drizzle with olive oil and orange juice. Arrange cut side down on a baking sheet(s) and roast for 12 minutes.

Remove the baking sheet(s) from the oven, add the chestnuts and flip the Brussels sprouts over onto their backs. Return to oven and continue roasting for 8-10 minutes.

Remove from oven, add the dried cherries and drizzle with maple syrup. Return to oven to roast for 2-3 minutes.