RCP: Braised Lemon Chicken

This is a delicious recipe that gives you fall-off-the-bone chicken with a rich and complex sauce. This is as written in the cookbook, but I've made a bit of a change when I've made it. the first time, I used four thighs but did not change the proportion of any of the other ingredients. The second time, I used seven thighs and doubled the proportion of the other ingredients. Both came out well. I suppose it depends on the size of the chicken thighs that are used.

Braised Lemon Chicken (from Ursula Ferrigno’s Cucina Siciliana)

8 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
2 T. Italian ’00’ flour
3 T. olive oil
Thinly sliced zest of 3 unwashed lemons
1 small onion, chopped
2 sage sprigs
1 c. dry white wine
¼ c. water
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and then lightly dust with the flour all over.

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy saute pan over medium heat. Add the chicken pieces and brown well on all sides. Using a slotted spoon, remove the chicken pieces to a plate and season with salt and pepper.

Turn the heat down to medium low and add the lemon zest, onion, and sage to the pan. Saute until the onion is golden and tender, about ten minutes.

Return the chicken to the pan along with any accumulated juices. Pour the wine over the chicken, partially cover the pan, and simmer gently for 50 -55 minutes, or until the chicken is very tender and most of the wine has evaporated. The chicken should be nutty brown in color and glazed with the pan juices. Check the seasoning.

Transfer the chicken pieces to a platter. Skim any excess fat from the pan juices and adjust the seasoning. If the sauce is too thick, add a tablespoon or two of water. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.

Unwashed lemons? No doubt to keep the essential oils in the zest. But I wouldn't recommend that with supermarket lemons. Pesticides even in the bagged ones, and who knows what in those sold loose.

-Paul W.

I dropped mine in a mud puddle on the way home!

(That's a silly recipe line.)

Yeah, I thought that was interesting, to say the least!

But sorry, Jeff, you'll just have to have mud in your chicken. No washing allowed!

Mike, interesting that you and I had similar dishes in mind. I was making, for the first time, chicken and dumplings by Molly Stevens. Quite similar, chicken, 1 cup of wine, 1 cup of stock, generous amount of lemon zest, celery, onion, shallot, and nutmeg. Then you poach the dumplings in the braising liquid. Turned out well using 1 year old (deep freeze) Costco chicken thighs, which I didn't buy but came to me when our scout crabbing trip got rained out and we no longer needed it for bait. Pretty big effort, though. It even has you make a "liason" combining egg and cream to thicken the sauce, not something I'd previously heard of. One oddness is she has you cook the skin-on thighs in 2 Tbs of butter, sans any flour, and is very specific that they are not to brown, but merely get "blond" after 4 minutes a side on low. Then you're supposed to throw away the remaining butter/schmaltz mixture in the pan, and cook the aromatics in 2 Tbs of new butter! This was a bridge too far for me, and I simply let the frying mixture ride. My first time making dumplings, they turned out a bit soft, but tasty.

Yeah, I thought that was interesting, to say the least!

But sorry, Jeff, you'll just have to have mud in your chicken. No washing allowed!

OK, OK, OK. I count my blessings that I don't walk home through the dog run.

I doubt that a quick rinse and drying is going to do any damage to the taste of the zest. I always wash my lemons, even the Lisbon Lemons on my own tree...and I do not spray them.

Walt - that was quite a recipe. I'm not familiar with Molly Stevens - do her recipes tend to require unusual steps?

I doubt that a quick rinse and drying is going to do any damage to the taste of the zest. I always wash my lemons, even the Lisbon Lemons on my own tree...and I do not spray them.

As you may know, lemons and limes have an artificial wax applied to them, which some people remove to improve the taste of the zest.

Mike, this was only my second recipe from her, the other being a milk-braised pork. Still forming an opinion.

Larry, I wonder if anyone like Harold McGee has tested the impact of waxed vs. unwaxed on zest. On the one hand, the wax is quite neutral, but on the other it might emulsify and cover up the essential oils in the zest. Even lemons straight off a home tree do have a bit of a gloss which seems like plenty to protect the contents, but I dunno.

Lemons and limes have a natural wax coating, but an additional coat of wax is applied, which could be beeswax or synthetic wax (perhaps containing a fungicide). I have McGee's book. I'll look later.

Oops. I don't have McGee's book. I know I read it, though. Maybe it was a library copy. I do have Corriher's book, but waxes aren't covered.

Luckily I didn't have to disturb the cat resting on me to grab McGee. He says that lemons are harvested green and ripened off the vine like tomatoes, which causes them to develop a waxy coating. But nothing in the index about the flavor or effects of wax or waxy coatings, or citrus zest, for that matter.