Braised Chicken Thighs

A lot of old fashioned Mediterranean dishes are braised chicken or beef or lamb with herbs, veggies and stock/broth to create hearty meals. Today I want to share with you my Braised Chicken Thighs recipe in the Dutch Oven!! My family loves this recipe for dinner, especially when I serve it over rice.

A lot of the dishes I grew up with have some sort of sauteed onion, carrot and other veggies in olive oil plus some protein and then added flavor in the form of fresh herbs, seasonings, butter, wine and broth. A similar recipe is my Braised Beef Shanks in Dutch Oven.

The process is a bit slow compared to modern 10 minute meals, but the active cooking part is not too complicated. When chicken is cooking low and slow, you just have to check occasionally that everything looks fine.

Best thing about this dish is that you can cook more if you have a bigger Dutch oven or braiser than mine and use the leftovers for another dinner during the week!! It’s just perfect!!

Ingredients and Substitutions

Most of the time I cook the recipe exactly as written below. But sometimes I would replace certain ingredients based on what I have available.

Let’s go over the list of ingredients:

• chicken thighs – I prefer using chicken thighs for this recipe. They hold well to cooking in low and slow for a long time, give a lot of flavor because of the bones in and browned skin plus they look so pretty. You can use drumsticks or other bone in chicken cut of your choice for this recipe.
• olive oil – I use olive oil when I brown the chicken as well as when I saute the veggies.
• butter – butter is delicious and I only use 3 tbsps because I don’t want to overdo it but butter and chicken are made for each other:). I use 1 tbsp of butter when I brown the chicken and the other 2 tbsps when I add flour to thicken up the sauce.
• yellow onion – yellow onion is the most standard onion for this braised chicken dish. You can add or replace it with green onions for a spring dish or with leeks for a more wintery type braised dish.
• carrots – carrot is a staple in most braised dishes, stews and soups of Mediterranean origin.
• celery – I always throw in some celery when I’m sauteing onions and carrots, I feel it’s part of the getting a stew or soup started. Instead of celery you can use fennel. It’s not the same flavor but I do enjoy adding fennel to my braised dishes.
• all purpose flour – all purpose flour thickens the sauce and gives that luscious look to the braised dish so it doesn’t look like a soup,
• garlic – yes I use a lot of garlic, you can adjust up or down to taste:)).
• chicken stock or broth – whichever you have available will work on this recipe.
• white wine – white wine adds depth of flavor, it helps to tenderize the chicken even further, it deglazes the pot and adds to the richness of this dish.
• seasonings – I use Mediterranean sea salt, black pepper, paprika, fresh parsley (both in the dish and as a garnish), oregano or marjoram etc.

Sonila’s Tips and Notes

This recipe requires a Dutch oven or a heavy bottom pot. It’d be hard to braise on a regular pot because the ingredients would start sticking to the bottom. I would love one day to have a Le Creuset braiser but for now I have found an economical Dutch Oven from Amazon (affiliate) – My braiser.

I took some pictures throughout the cooking process to help facilitate visually the process step by step.

What to serve this dish with?

Our most used side dish with braised chicken thighs is garlic jasmine rice. Other times I serve the dish with Mediterranean style potatoes. It’s a hearty dish, that’s why it goes great with rice and potatoes. If you don’t have any of those two, just warm up some bread and serve it with this dish. You won’t be able to stop dipping the bread in the broth:).

Serve leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I prefer glass containers for this dish. They’ll last few days in the refrigerator and will taste even better when warmed up.

I haven’t tried freezing this dish myself, but general guidelines for a cooked chicken dish with no dairy say that it is safe to freeze for up to 3 months. Use a freezer safe container or freezer bag and don’t forget to label with name of the dish and date you froze it for safety.

If you would like to save this recipe for later, please pin one of the images from this post, to your boards in Pinterest. Let me know in comments if you have any questions, feedback from cooking the recipe or if you have your own version:). I appreciate all communication!

Thank you for reading my blog, it means a lot to my family:).

Other Chicken Dishes

Here are some more chicken recipes you can check out in my blog:

• Tarragon Chicken in White Wine Sauce
• Chicken with Sundried Tomatoes and Feta Cheese
• Mustard Chicken in Creamy Sauce
• Baked Chicken Drumsticks and Rice
• Cornish Chickens and Potatoes