Chicken Thighs with Olives & Green Beans
In this French-style recipe, you render the fat from chicken thighs slowly, which leads to the ultimate goal when cooking chicken: a tender center and crispy skin. A high-quality olive with its pit goes a long way toward making this simple and homey dish of inexpensive chicken special nonetheless.
Ingredients
- Serves 6
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon espelette pepper or hot paprika
- 1½ tablespoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Salt
- 6 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 white onion halved lengthwise, then thinly sliced lengthwise
- 12 cloves garlic
- Leaves from 2 sprigs thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- ¾ cup sherry vinegar
- ¾ cup dry white wine
- ¾ cup Chicken Stock Chickpea Stock , or water
- 12 green beans ends trimmed
- 1 cup Taggiasca or Niçoise olives rinsed and left whole with their pits
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, espelette pepper, smoked paprika, black pepper, and 2 tablespoons salt.
- Coat each chicken thigh on all sides with the flour and spice mixture.
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan on medium low heat.
- When the oil is hot, place the thighs in the pan skin-side down, working in batches as needed so the thighs don’t touch one another.
- Cook, nudging occasionally to prevent sticking, until you hear the skin expel its water and turn a golden brown, about 12 minutes.
- You should hear a gentle, light sizzle.
- If it sounds louder than that, turn down the heat.
- Flip the thighs and continue to cook until the other side has browned, about 10 minutes more.
- Once you’ve browned each chicken thigh (the inside of the chicken hasn’t been cooked through yet), transfer it to a plate and set aside.
- Leaving the oil and chicken fat in the pan, turn the heat to medium and add the onion, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves and cook until the onion is soft and just starting to brown, about 10 minutes.
- You’ll notice some dark brown and black bits on the bottom of the pan, which are the chicken’s juices that have caramelized—this is the best part (see “The Fond” on this page).
- Return the browned chicken to the pan and turn the heat to high.
- Add the sherry vinegar to deglaze, scraping up the brown bits that have formed.
- Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated.
- Add the white wine and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has reduced by half, about 5 minutes.
- Add the stock, green beans, olives, and a pinch of salt and turn the heat to low.
- Cover the pan with the lid slightly ajar to allow steam to escape.
- Gently simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes.
- Taste and season with more salt, if necessary.
- To serve, transfer the chicken to serving plates, scooping up plenty of the juices and spooning the green beans and olives over the top.
