This Food & Wine recipe pairs crispy-skinned chicken thighs and drumsticks with a briny, sun-bright mix of buttery olives, marinated artichokes, and lemon. The pan sauce does the heavy lifting: sherry, fish sauce, thyme, and garlic simmer together into a savory, herb-flecked broth that’s begging to be mopped up. Pure magic in the mouth!
A few keys to get there: pat the chicken bone-dry before it hits the pan, so the skin actually browns instead of steaming. Weighing it down with a heavy lid or grill press (or a smaller cast-iron skillet, if that’s what you’ve got) keeps the skin flush against the heat for a deeper, more even crust. Then braise covered for most of the cooking time to keep the meat fall-apart tender, and uncover it for the last 15 minutes to let the skin crisp back up.
Serve it with crusty bread, couscous, or orzo for sauce-sopping duty. Turn it into a full one-pan dinner by tucking halved baby potatoes and/or sliced fennel (our choice) into the dish before it goes in the oven.
SUBSTITUTES: If you don’t have dry sherry, substitute dry white wine and add 1 to 2 teaspoons of honey to mimic sherry’s subtle sweetness. If you don’t have fish sauce, replace it with 1 to 2 teaspoons of soy sauce for a similarly savory, umami-rich finish. Cerignola olives are buttery and mild, manzanilla olives add a brinier bite, and kalamata olives contribute a deeper, more robust flavor. Any of these will work well, so use your favorite.
Braised Chicken with Marinated Artichoke Hearts
Ingredients
- 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken drumsticks and thighs (about 2 1/2 lbs.)
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 2 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, divided
- 1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup Castelvetrano olives
- 6 Thyme sprigs
- 1 large garlic head, halved crosswise
- 1 Lemon, thinly sliced
- 1 small fennel bulb, halved lengthwise, cored, sliced into thin wedges
- 3 cups drained marinated artichoke hearts, plus 1/4 cup brine from jar, divided
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1/2 cup (4 oz.) dry sherry
- 1 Tbsp. fish sauce
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Sprinkle both sides of chicken evenly with pepper and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Heat oil in a large cast-iron skillet or black carbon steel skillet over medium-high. Add half of the chicken, skin sides down; place a heavy pot lid on top of chicken pieces to weigh them down. (Do not cover skillet.) Cook, undisturbed, until browned and crisp, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove lid; transfer chicken, skin sides up, to a 12- x 9-inch oval baking dish or a 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Repeat cooking process with remaining chicken. Scatter olives, thyme, garlic (cut sides down), lemon, fennel slices and artichoke hearts around chicken in baking dish.
- Brown the fennel wedges in hot empty skillet for about 2 minutes per side. Move to casserole dish with chicken.
- Add stock, sherry, fish sauce, and artichoke brine to skillet; bring to a boil over medium-high, scraping up browned bits from bottom of pan. Stir in remaining 1 teaspoon salt; pour mixture around chicken in baking dish. Cover tightly with aluminum foil; braise until chicken is very tender, about 1 hour.
- Remove foil from baking dish; increase oven temperature to 400°F. Turn garlic halves cut sides up. Roast chicken until skin is crisp, about 15 minutes.
- Discard thyme sprigs. Either discard garlic (not us!), or remove cloves from skins and mash into sauce. Transfer to individual plates, and serve in shallow bowls.
Adapted from a recipe by Naomi Pomeroy for Food & Wine
