Chicken with Bacon and White Wine

Let me start by giving a big shout-out to Sonja Jamison for bringing this recipe to my attention. Clearly it contains some of my favorite things, meaning chicken, bacon, and wine. My friend knows me well.

I started off by browning the bacon,...

...while my sous chef, Olivia, offered to help take care of any bacon bits that may fall to the floor.

Next it was time to dredge the chicken thighs with flour, salt, pepper, and Herbes de Provence. Another Sonja shout-out! She and her husband, Dan, gifted me with some spices when they were here last year. This spice combo has always been one of my favorites. 

The thighs were pan fried until golden brown on both sides and set aside.

Next up were the onions. The recipe calls for shallots, but they aren't something I've found in the Corozal markets. As a result, a humble yellow onion was thinly sliced and sauteed until it got soft.

I then added the white wine (the remainder of the bottle being consumed by the chef). All those lovely brown bits were scrapped up, then the chicken stock went in the pot. I also added a healthy teaspoon of the Herbes de Provence to keep that flavor going. That all simmered for a bit until it started to reduce. 

I put the chicken and bacon bits back into the pan, and put it into a preheated 350-degree oven for 40 minutes. 

The recipe calls for basting the thighs every 10 or so minutes with the pan sauce. It became quickly apparent that there really wasn't enough sauce to make basting possible. So I just flipped the chicken every so often to ensure both sides got some lovin'.

I let the chicken rest, out of the oven, for about 15 minutes. That gave me plenty of time to cook some couscous.

The final plating:

Our thoughts? Overall, the flavors were terrific. Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough pan sauce. I don't think I over reduced the stock/wine mixture, so I'm not sure what happened. I'd like to try it again and double the pan sauce ingredients, which should make a difference. 

The other change I would make is to use skinless thighs. While the skins were crispy prior to putting the pot in the oven, they lost that quality during the cooking process. 

But all in all, this recipe has lots of merit and deserves another go. I'm so glad David doesn't mind being a guinea pig.