2019-08-01 Cook\'s Country

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 • COOK’S COUNTRY 27

ONE POT

“GARDENER’S STEW” DOESN’T
quite cut it in English. But when you
borrow a word from the French, chick-
en jardinière sounds just as elegant as
good versions of this dish taste. It’s a
light braise of bone-in chicken parts,
carrots, potatoes, peas, and mushrooms
fl avored with garlic, herbs, wine, and
often cured pork such as pancetta or
bacon. It’s light but satisfying—equally
comforting and refi ned.
Many recipes for this dish require a
lot of work, starting with breaking down
a chicken, making stock, and cooking
the vegetables separately before com-
bining them at the end. What person,
gardener or not, has time for that?
To simplify the process, I started
with a bird’s worth of bone-in, skin-on
chicken parts. I seasoned the chicken
parts with salt and pepper, seared them
in a little oil, and then transferred them
to a plate while I built the stew’s fl avor
base. I started with pancetta (it won
out over bacon and salt pork), which I
cut into small pieces. I sautéed it with
chopped onion, garlic, carrots, mush-
rooms, and thyme and then stirred in
a little fl our for thickening. When the
fl our had cooked just enough to lose its
raw taste, it was time to add the liquid.
Traditional recipes call for
homemade stock, but I went with
store-bought chicken broth (for
convenience) combined with some dry
white wine; it’s a French stew, after
all. Then I added the potatoes and the
browned (but not fully cooked) chicken
parts. After about 40 minutes of gentle,
covered simmering on the stove, the
chicken thighs (which require more
cooking than breasts) had reached

Chicken Jardinière

One pot. One chicken.

One hour. One darn

fi ne dinner. by Alli Berkey

the carrots and mushrooms from the

sautéing phase and adding them to the

broth-wine mixture with the potatoes

was the answer.

To fi nish the stew, I added frozen

peas (right from the freezer, no thawing)

at the end of cooking and then sprinkled

on a bit of chopped tarragon—licorice-y

and bright—before serving.

With whole chicken pieces and

hearty chunks of vegetables in a deeply

fl avorful broth, my Chicken Jardinière

doesn’t exactly look fancy. But with one

taste, you’ll understand how it trans-

forms a typical weeknight meal into

something rarifi ed and delicious.

175 degrees. I took the pot off the heat

and called my colleagues to taste.

Good, but not great. The white

meat was overcooked and dry, and the

vegetables lacked a certain je ne sais

quoi. For the chicken, I simply started

the dark meat 20 minutes earlier than

the white meat; this ensured that all the

chicken parts were done at the same

time. But what about the vegetables?

I’ve always sautéed vegetables such

as carrots and mushrooms along with

the onions when making stews and

braises. But a coworker prodded me

to explore whether that was necessary

here. It turns out that withholding

ONE-POT CHICKEN JARDINIÈRE

Serves 4 to 6

Buy a 4-ounce hunk of pancetta from

the deli counter. Try to buy potatoes

with a 1-inch diameter. If you can fi nd

only slightly larger potatoes, up to

2 inches in diameter, cut them in half.

Do not substitute russet potatoes for

Yukon Gold potatoes. Note that the

dark and white meat are added to the

pot at diff erent times in step 3.

3 pounds bone-in chicken pieces

(split breasts cut in half, drumsticks,

and/or thighs), trimmed

¾ teaspoon table salt, divided

¾ teaspoon pepper, divided

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

4 ounces pancetta, cut into ½-inch

pieces

1 onion, chopped fi ne

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme

3 tablespoons all-purpose fl our

2 cups chicken broth

¾ cup dry white wine

12 ounces small Yukon Gold potatoes,

unpeeled

8 ounces small white mushrooms,

trimmed and halved

4 carrots, cut into 1-inch chunks

½ cup frozen peas

1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon

or parsley

Lemon wedges

1.Pat chicken dry with paper towels

and sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon salt and

¼ teaspoon pepper. Heat oil in Dutch

oven over medium-high heat until

shimmering. Add chicken, skin side

down, and cook until well browned on

both sides, about 3 minutes per side.

Transfer chicken to plate.

2.Reduce heat to medium. Add pancet-

ta, onion, garlic, thyme, and remaining

½ teaspoon salt to now-empty pot and

cook until onion just begins to soften,

about 4 minutes. Stir in fl our and cook

for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in broth

and wine. Stir in potatoes, mushrooms,

carrots, chicken drumsticks and thighs,

and remaining ½ teaspoon pepper and

bring to simmer. Cover and simmer for

25 minutes.

3.Uncover and stir. Add chicken breasts

and any accumulated juices to pot; re-

turn to simmer. Cover and continue to

cook until breasts register 160 degrees

and drumsticks/thighs register at least

175 degrees, about 20 minutes longer.

Off heat, stir in peas and let sit uncov-

ered for 5 minutes. Stir in tarragon and

season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with lemon wedges.

Building the Braise Is a Simple Process

The clean, fresh flavors of this hearty stew make it suitable for any season.

1. Brown all chicken pieces and
   remove from pot.
   2. Add pancetta, onion, garlic, and thyme
   to pot and sauté until starting to soften.
   3. Add fl our, broth, wine, vegetables, and
   chicken and simmer before adding peas.