Serves 4 with plenty of leftovers.
“I had this braised chicken at Campo Fina in Healdsburg, and in that moment I knew two things: I would never be the same, and I would need to eat it again immediately. So naturally, I went looking for its origins in Northern Italy, eating my way through trattoria after trattoria in the name of research. Then I came home and started making my own version.
There are two secrets to getting it right.
First, use an absolutely unreasonable amount of onion and garlic. Cook them low and slow until they collapse into something sweet and jammy that holds the whole dish together. Fair warning: this is not date-night chicken. This is nobody-is-kissing-anybody chicken, and it’s worth it.
Second, use real San Marzano tomatoes, for goodness’ sake. Mine come straight from the garden, picked at their peak and simmered until the kitchen smells like late summer. If you’re not growing your own, buy a good can, look for the DOP label, and skip the sad, watery stuff.
Serve it with crusty bread for mopping, because there will be sauce, and leaving any behind would be a crime against Italy.”
Ingredients
For the Chicken & Braise
4 large chicken thighs
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 medium yellow onion, chopped
Soffritto base (2 celery rib and 3 carrot, finely minced)
4 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
1 cup white wine
1 can (28 oz) whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes or fresh if you have them (crushed by hand)
1 cup chicken broth
1 sprig fresh rosemary and 2 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
For the Greens & Serving
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Season the chicken. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, season both sides generously with salt and pepper, then dust lightly with flour and shake off the excess.
Brown the chicken. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add the chicken in a single layer with space between each piece, working in batches if needed. Cook without moving it for 4 to 5 minutes, until golden brown, then flip and brown the other side. Transfer to a plate.
Cook the vegetables. Pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of fat. Add the diced vegetables and garlic and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally and scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pot, for 10 to 15 minutes, until soft, golden, and starting to stick to the pan. If the garlic starts to burn, turn the heat down a notch.
Deglaze with wine. Pour in the white wine and scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen any remaining browned bits. Simmer for 5-8 minutes, until the wine has almost completely cooked off.
Add the tomatoes and stock. Crush the tomatoes with your hands as you add them to the pot, along with their juices. Stir in the chicken stock, bring to a simmer, and cook for 5 minutes.
Braise. Return the chicken and any juices from the plate to the pot. The liquid should come most of the way up the chicken; add more stock if needed. Cover and transfer to the oven.
Cook for 1½ to 2 hours, until the chicken is tender and pulls easily from the bone.
Finish and serve. Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper as needed. Serve over creamy polenta, with plenty of sauce spooned over the top.