Chicken Madeira
This is a savory chicken dish that uses a fortified wine called Madiera in it's sauce. Normally, I'd keep the chicken whole, but this time I decided to shred it into the sauce at the end. I served it with my buttermilk cauliflower mash. This dish is full of flavor and definitely qualifies as comfort food. It also reheats beautifully and can be made in a big batch. I made a few variations throughout the week with the leftovers which can be seen at the bottom of the page. The first one is with the chicken drumstick with the meat left on the bone. Less saucier than the other dishes. Next is one topped with roasted mushrooms: Forest Nameko, Brown Pioparello, and Oyster Mushrooms. The last image is the shredded meat version, which is a bit more saucy and outstanding when combined with the mash.
Ingredients
2lbs bone in chicken thighs
2-4 drumsticks
3 links sweet Italian sausage
1lbs maitake mushrooms, bottoms trimmed, reserves for stock
1 cup peas
8 medium small shallots or 5-6 larger
1/2 yellow onion
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
6 cloves garlic
1/2 cup garbanzo beans or similar (optional)
1/2 bottle Madeira wine (leacocks rainwater)
4 cups chicken stock
1/3 cup veal stock (optional)
2tbsp slurry (equal parts cornstarch and water)
1-2tbsp Sherry vinegar (for finishing)
Kosher salt
Onion powder
Pinch of sugar
Canola oil
Cookware
8qt rondeau or similar
Half sheet pan
Half sheet rack
Wooden spoon
Slotted spoon
Large mixing bowl
Cutting board
Chefs knife
C-folds or standard paper towels
Short and Sweet Instructions
Slice the sausage into rounds and sauté until browned on the outside but not cooked though.
Drain on towels.
Sauté the chicken skin side down in the sausage fat until golden brown but not cooked through.
Set aside.
Cook the mushrooms in the sausage / chicken fat about 75% of the way through
Add garlic and onion, sauté until translucent
Deglaze with Madeira
Add the chicken stock and boil for 1 min
Lower heat and add the chicken, cover and simmer for 10-12m, or maybe braise for 45m
Remove the chicken and shred.
Thicken the sauce with a slurry.
Adjust final seasonings
Add the shredded chicken and sausage back to pan
Add peas and parsley
Serve with mash
Prep
Cut your sausage links into fifths
Dice your shallots
Dice your onion
Smash and peel your garlic
Cooking Directions
Season chicken with kosher salt
Cut the sausage down into fifths
Heat 2 tbsp canola oil over medium heat
Once shimmering, add the sausage to the pan and cook until browned. It’s okay if the inside is still pink since this will finish cooking later. Roll them around in the pan as they cook to brown them all the way around.
Remove from pan with slotted spoon and place on towels to drain.
The oil level in the pan should be about the same, but if not, add extra to get it back to its original volume.
Turn the heat up to medium high
Once your oil is back at temperature (this will happen quickly since the pan is already hot), add the season chicken skin side down.
Cook over medium high heat, 6-10 minutes. We’re going to be cooking for color here, so don’t worry about cooking the chicken all the way through. In fact, it’s better if the chicken isn’t cooked all the way through and it will retain its moisture better as the cooking progresses.
Once the skin looks good, flip it and cook the other side until it is nicely colored. 4-5 minutes.
Lower your heat, remove the chicken from the pan and transfer to a rack. Set aside.
At this point we have 3 different fats in our pan: sausage fat, chicken fat and canola oil. If your oil never started smoking, you could use this oil to continue cooking with and it will impart more flavor into the dish. In my case, I dumped the oil out into a proper receptacle and added new oil to the pan.
NOTE: if you are changing your oil, do not wipe the pan out. We want to keep all that delicious fond stuck to the pan.
Heat your oil over medium heat until shimmering.
Add the maitake mushrooms to the pan and a decent pinch of salt.
Cook these over medium heat until they’ve given up most of their moisture, but are not completely dry. 4-6 minutes.
Add the garlic to the pan, stir to combine and sauté for 1-2 minutes, or until you just begin to smell them.
Add your shallots and onion to the pan, add a pinch of salt and stir to combine. Cook until soft and translucent. 5-7 minutes.
Deglaze the pan with the Madeira wine, scraping up the bits of burnt food on the bottom.
Reduce the wine by 2/3. Roughly 5-7 minutes.
Add the chicken stock (and veal stock if desired) and another good pinch or two of salt. Stir to combine.
Bring to a boil. Let boil for 1 minute.
Reduce heat to a simmer.
Add your chicken back into the pot, cover with a lid, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through. 10-12 minutes. You don’t have to hammer the chicken here. It’s going to have more time to cook. The goal is juicy chunks of chicken.
Once the chicken is cooked, use a slotted spoon to again remove the chicken and place it back on the rack to cool for 5 minutes. We’re just cooling it enough so you can hand shred it without burning yourself. Let the sauce keep simmering while you’re doing the next part.
To shred the chicken, first remove the skin and flip the thigh over so it’s skin side down (or on the side where the skin used to be). Holding down the sides of the meat, pull the center bone up and out of the thigh. Set the bone aside for later use in a stock. Shred the meat into chunks using your hands or a fork. Discard the cartilage at the top of the meat where it connected to the bone. Move the meat to a small mixing bowl.
Continue for the rest of the thighs and drumsticks.
Before adding your meat back, taste the sauce and adjust any seasonings. This is where I added the sugar. It may not be necessary, but use it here if needed.
Make your slurry and add it to the sauce.
Stir to combine.
Then the heat up to high and bring the liquid up to a boil. This is what will thicken the sauce. It’s better to go light here since you can always thicken it up after if it needs it. If it becomes too thick, you can add a little bit of water to loosen it up.
Reduce heat back down to low.
Add a few drops of sherry vinegar.
Adjust any seasonings.
Once the meat it shredded, you can return it back to the pot.
Add the sausage back to the pot.
Add your frozen peas to the pot.
Add the parsley to the pot.
Stir to combine.
Serve with cauliflower mash.
