One Of My Favorite Chicken Recipes Of All Time

Occasionally, I find a recipe that is perfect to my tastes, and I want to immediately share it with everyone I know. I call them "As Good As It Gets"

This is one of those recipes. My wife found it in a recent Fine Cooking edition, and we prepared it for some friends who felt the same as I did after tasting it and requesting the recipe.

We prepared it again for a friend recovering from surgery but made a triple batch this time. Some for her dinner, some for our dinner, and some for the freezer for a later date.

She loved it and requested the recipe and asked me to send a copy to her sister. So now I think this is a winner and I should share it with you.

It's not a difficult recipe, but there are a lot of steps that take your full attention. Like making risotto, you must be there the whole time it's cooking. But the effort is well worth it.

The recipe in Fine Cooking calls for using skinless bone-in chicken thighs, but the first time I made it, I used boneless/skinless thighs. The second time I prepared it, I could only find bone-in chicken thighs with skin, so I removed the skin myself.

Which was better? I found no difference in taste with the bone-in or boneless, but the latter was sure easier to manage while eating.

UPDATE 10/3/22

I haven't made this Chicken Sausage Fennel Recipe in many years, but I wanted a better photo and made it last night. Glad we did. It was delicious.

I'm not going to say it is the most stunning dish to look at, but the flavors are all there and lots of them. The sauce is so good you'll be tempted to eat it as a soup.

One major change from the original recipe is the sausage. We could not find sausage links at the grocery store. Can you believe that?

So we substituted loose sausage, not in casings, and I think I like it better. The sausage better mixes in with the sauce, giving the dish more flavor throughout than in one bite.

After making this again, it is not a dish you walk away from while cooking. There isn't much time to sit with your loved one over a glass of wine while the food is cooking. You really have to stay on top of this one.

But the effort is worth it. This is a tremendous dish, and I hope you get to try it. Please send me your feedback.

📖 Recipe

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Chicken Thighs with Sausage and Braised Fennel

As Good as It Gets

Prep Time30

Cook Time1

Total Time1 30

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Servings: 4 people

Ingredients

1 large large fresh fennel with stalks attached
6 chicken thighs skinless and boneless
salt and pepper
5 tablespoons olive oil
3 links sweet Italian sausage
1 large yellow onion halved and thinly sliced
1 clove garlic minced
½ cup dry white wine
2 cups chicken stock homemade or commercial
1 large Yukon Gold potato peeled and cut into ½ inch dice
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar good quality , more if needed
⅓ cup Parmigiano Reggiano freshly grated, more for serving

Instructions

You can start by prepping the fennel. To prep, cut off the stalks but keep the feathery foliage for garnish. Quarter the bulb part and save one of the quarters for more garnish. Slice the remaining three-quarters in ½ inch-thick wedges.
Peel and cut the onion in half. Thinly slice the onion halves. Peel and mince the garlic.
Peel and dice the potatoes into ½ inch dice.
You can grate the Parmesan cheese now or wait until you need it.
Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper and cook the thighs in batches until brown, about 3 minutes per side.
Be sure not to crowd the pan, or the chicken will steam rather than brown.
Transfer the thighs to a plate or platter and cover with aluminum foil.
Once the chicken is cooked, brown the sausage in the same pan. When done, transfer them to a plate.
Now it's time to add the fennel and onion to the pot. Season with salt and cook until the onions are translucent and slightly caramelized.
Push the fennel and onion mixture to the side, add some oil, and sauté the garlic. DO NOT LET IT BURN!! Incorporate it into the fennel and garlic.
Raise the heat to high, add the wine, and deglaze the pan while scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon to loosen up any pieces of chicken or vegetables that may be stuck to the bottom.
Continue cooking until most of the wine is evaporated.
Add the chicken stock, potato, and rosemary and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pot, and simmer until the potato is tender when stuck with a fork.
Remove and puree about 1½ cups of the vegetables and broth in your food processor or blender and return it to the pot.
If the sauce is too thick, thin it with some additional chicken stock.
Add the chicken pieces back to the sauce and any accumulated chicken juices, cover with the lid slightly ajar, and lower the heat to a low simmer.
Cut the sausages into 1-inch pieces and transfer them to the pot after the chicken has cooked for 15 minutes.
Again cover partially and simmer gently until the chicken and sausage are cooked through about 15 minutes.
Be sure to occasionally stir the mixture during this process, but by all means, don't overwork the ingredients by stirring too much.
Now for the garnish. Shave the remaining fennel quarter with a sharp vegetable peeler and transfer the pieces to a small bowl—season with salt and pepper.
Finely chop one to two tablespoons of the feathery foliage and add to the shaved fennel. Add the remaining teaspoon of oil, toss, and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper.
Remove and discard the rosemary and stir in the balsamic vinegar and Parmigiano cheese when the chicken and sausage are cooked.
Spoon a portion of the chicken, sausage, and sauce into each bowl to serve. Sprinkle a little more graded Parmigiano on top, then mound a small portion of the fennel garnish and reserved feathery foliage over it.

Notes

Fennel is that bulbous green plant with celery like stems and feathery foliage you see at the supermarket. You can serve it raw in salads but I like it braised or sautéed.

I often tell people, "Oh, the stuff that tastes like anise which tastes like licorice," but it is really much sweeter and mellower than anise.

This dish is real comfort food. Not fancy but great tasting. I think it will be one you prepare and serve many, many times. I know I will. Enjoy! RG