Ina’s Creamy Chicken Thighs with Lemon Leaks and Thyme

The leeks are the secret ingredient!
  • PREP 15 minutes
  • COOK 1 hour and 10 minutes
  • TOTAL 1 hour and 20 minutes
  • SERVES 3

Ingredients

2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (3-4 thighs)

Extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons (¼ stick) unsalted butter

1½ cups chopped yellow onion (1 large)

1½ cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts (2 leeks) rinsed well to remove any dirt

2 teaspoons minced garlic (2-3 cloves)

½ cup good chicken stock, preferably homemade

½ cup dry white wine, such as Pinot Grigio

½ cup crème fraîche

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ small lemon, sliced in thin half-rounds

8 to 10 sprigs fresh thyme

Cooked basmati rice or quinoa for serving

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2. Place the chicken on a sheet pan, skin side up, and dry with paper towels. Rub with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast until cooked through and the skin is golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Set aside.

3. Meanwhile, heat the butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large (12-inch) ovenproof skillet (Ie enameled cast iron) over medium heat. Add the onion and leeks and sauté until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock and wine and simmer for about 5 minutes. Whisk in the crème fraîche, lemon juice, 2 teaspoons salt and ½ teaspoon pepper and taste for seasoning.

4. Nestle the chicken thighs into the sauce in the sauté pan. Tuck the lemon slices among the thighs and strew the thyme sprigs on top. Place the pan in the oven and roast uncovered for 15 minutes. Serve hot with the sauce over rice or couscous.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s