Vinegar-Braised Chicken (Poulet au Vinaigre)
Poulet au Vinaigre
Chicken with vinegar is one of the great poultry dishes from the area around Lyon, France, where the chickens are considered by many to be the best in the world. It is popular dish in bouchons, a type of restaurant found in Lyon that serves traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, such as sausages, duck pâté or roast pork. Compared to other forms of French cooking such as nouvelle cuisine, the dishes are quite fatty and heavily oriented around meat. Typically, the emphasis in a bouchon is not on haute cuisine but, rather, a convivial atmosphere and a personal relationship with the owner.
The tradition of bouchons came from small inns visited by silk workers passing through Lyon in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. According to the dictionary Le petit Robert, this name derives from the 16th century expression for a bunch of twisted straw. A representation of such bundles began to appear on signs to designate the restaurants and, by metonymy, the restaurants themselves became known as bouchons. The more common use of "bouchons" as a stopper or cork at the mouth of a bottle, and its derivatives, have the same etymology.
Poulet au vinaigre, or "chicken in vinegar," is a classic French dish, particularly popular in Lyon, where chicken is braised in a flavorful sauce made with vinegar, wine, and often cream, resulting in a tender and tangy dish. The chicken is often browned first, then braised in the sauce until tender. The sauce is then reduced and thickened, often with butter or cream. It's characterized by a balance of tangy acidity from the vinegar, richness from the wine and cream, and savory notes from the herbs and aromatics.
Ingredients: Chicken: Typically uses chicken thighs, but can also include other cuts.
Sauce: The sauce is the star, made with a combination of: Red wine vinegar (or tarragon vinegar), White wine (often a dry white wine), Chicken broth, Shallots or onions, Garlic, Tomato paste (optional)
Heavy cream (optional, for a creamier sauce), Butter (for finishing the sauce), Herbs (like tarragon and thyme)
Poulet au Vinaigre (Chicken with Vinegar)
from https://www.allrecipes.com/
Poulet au vinaigre, or chicken with vinegar, is one of those rustic French preparations for chicken thighs, that is both a pleasure to make and delicious to eat. The tarragon, shallot, and wine pan sauce is rich, but not too rich, and perfectly balanced.
Despite the fancy name, this is a very simple, rustic dish that can be taken in a lot of different directions. You can use different types of vinegar, wine, and aromatic vegetables, as well as tweak the amounts of butter and cream to create something lighter, or maybe even a little heavier. No matter how you personalize this, I think it’s a must in any cook’s chicken recipe rotation
This recipe got a lot of 5 star reviews.
2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 large bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup diced shallots
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup wine vinegar
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter
1 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Mix salt and black pepper together, and season chicken first on the meat side. Turn chicken skin side up, pat dry, and season with the rest of the mixture.
Heat oil in an ovenproof pan over high heat. Place thighs in, skin side down, and sear until well browned, without disturbing, about 5 minutes. Turn and sear meat side for 2 minutes. Remove to plate and turn off heat.
Drain or use a paper towel to remove excess fat in the pan, leaving 1 to 2 tablespoons.
Turn heat to medium, add shallots and a pinch of salt, and sauté for a few minutes, just until shallots turn translucent. Add garlic and tomato paste and cook, stirring, for another minute.
Add vinegar and cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add wine and broth, raise heat to high, and bring to a simmer. Add chicken back in, skin side up, and turn off heat.
Bake in the preheated oven until meat is fork tender, 40 to 45 minutes. An instant read thermometer inserted near the center should read about 195 degrees F (90 degrees C).
Remove thighs from pan, and turn heat to high. Boil for a few minutes, or until volume is reduced by half. Add cream and cook until sauce starts to thicken slightly, a few minutes more.
Reduce heat to low and add butter and tarragon. Stir until butter disappears. Add chicken back to the pan, and baste with sauce for a few minutes before serving.
Serve with pilaf rice, buttered noodles
Servings: 6
Apple Cider Vinegar Braised Chicken Thighs
from http://www.foodandwine.com/, February 2011
This is Cotton Row chef James Boyce's simple go-to, one-pot dish for entertaining. Serve the vinegar-braised chicken with buttered noodles, wheat berries or rice alongside, to soak up the tangy, buttery sauce.
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 pounds chicken thighs, fat trimmed
Salt and freshly ground pepper
5 carrots, sliced 1/2 inch thick
5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 leek, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup cider vinegar
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons snipped chives
Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large enameled cast-iron casserole, heat the olive oil. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and add them to the casserole, skin side down. Cook over moderately high heat, in batches if necessary, turning once, until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a platter.
Spoon off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat in the casserole. Add the carrots, garlic and leek and cook over low heat until crisp-tender, 5 minutes. Add the flour and stir for 1 minute. Add the vinegar and stir, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Bring the sauce to a boil and cook until thickened, 3 minutes. Add the broth, season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Nestle the chicken in the sauce, skin side up. Transfer the casserole to the oven and braise the chicken for about 50 minutes, until cooked through.
