My mother wasn’t much of a cook, but she could sure fry up a chicken and often did so on Sundays. She would actually cook two. One for my dad, and one for the other five of us. Just thinking of that meal makes my stomach growl.
I was recently thumbing through the May 2015 issue of Food and Wine, when I saw this recipe. I read through it and knew I pretty much had everything I needed to make it, and knew what was going to be on my dinner table that evening.
This recipe doesn’t disappoint. My husband and I both loved it. The chicken was moist and tasted like it was fried. It’s not, it’s baked. The chicken sits on a bed of Yukon Gold potatoes, and the whole thing is cradled in a creamy garlic sauce that is deepened with porcini mushrooms. Everything is then dotted with dried cherries, which just brightens up the whole dish.
Braised Chicken Thighs with Potatoes, Porcini & Dried Cherries
Author: Hostess At Heart
A beautiful one pan dinner that is super moist, delicious and looks like it took hours to make.
In a 1-1/2 quart saucepan, heat 1 teaspoon of the oil. Add the whole garlic cloves and cook over low heat until golden and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
While the garlic broth cooks, add 1 tablespoon canola oil to a large cast iron skillet and allow to heat up. Season the chicken with salt and cook over moderate heat until golden brown all over, about 10 minutes total. Remove chicken to a platter.
Let the skillet cool down and remove all but 1 tablespoon of the oil. Place the sliced potatoes in the bottom of the skillet, slightly overlapping. Set the chicken on top of the potatoes, skin side down.
Strain the garlic broth into a bowl and discard garlic. In another bowl, whisk 1 cup of the garlic broth with the sour cream. Stir in the porcini mushrooms. Season with salt. The remaining garlic broth will not be used. Pour the garlic sauce over the chicken and potatoes.
Scatter cherries and crushed garlic on top of the chicken and potatoes.
Roast the chicken for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven to 300 degrees F and roast for about 45 minutes longer or until the chicken registers done. Remove the skillet from the oven and turn on the broiler, setting the rack 6 inches from the top. Turn the chicken skin side up. Cook until golden brown and crispy, 5 to 8 minutes. Watch carefully. Serve immediately.
This recipe was calculated using the exact brands and measurements I used to make this recipe. If you are following a strict diet please note changing anything will cause the nutritional info to change. My calculations are intended as a guide only.
Julie, I completely agree on the versatility of chicken – just love it! This dish sounds just delicious – love that they sit on the potatoes – and cherries are a great addition too!
Thank you Judi for your comment! Especially since you were so kind to let me know that something must have been on the fritz! We really enjoyed this dish. It has so many wonderful flavors going on but wasn’t heavy or too rich.
Hey Julie, my husband would love this recipe, the chicken looks so perfectly brown and crispy. Pinned!Gorgeous photos too. How are you liking self-hosting?
Mine sure did to Lily as did I. Pictures are a work in progress but coming along. I just made the switch last week, and there have been many hours of wondering what in the heck did I get myself into! Learning curves are always difficult, but I am making progress! Always love chatting with you. Thank you for stopping by!
Oh no, I have to look into that. I was the exact same way when I first started the self-hosting. I found it was a lot more work in the beginning, but once everything is in place then its okay. I have to say though WP.com does make everything quite convenient. It’s very much a one stop shop solution while WP.org is very a la carte.
This looks right up my family’s alley! I love when you already have the ingredients in your house for a recipe you want to make. I feel as though it rarely happens, but it’s amazing when it does AND the recipe comes out well. Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures and delectable dish with us. Happy FF, and have a wonderful weekend! 😀
Thank you Kaila! I agree and love using ingredients that we know enjoy. I thought this dish came out looking pretty fancy when it was anything but. Those potatoes resting under the chicken were so good!
Julie, so beautiful, so delicious. You’ve really come back with a bang after your op haven’t you? Congratulations on self-hosting, onto perfection for you I see :). I love your skillet, is that a cast-iron one? Where do you get the tart cherries from? I’m going to look at your other posts now and see what I’ve missed :).
Thank you Loretta! I am coming a long with physical therapy but am improving all the time. I’ve had my cast iron forever. We always used when we went camping. Now I use it in my kitchen and it works great. It is so heavy though! I’ll have to keep in shape. I got the tart cherries from Trader Joes. They were dried and worked amazingly well. My site is coming along and there have been so many people that I have bugged with questions that have really helped!
I love one pan meal, but with how delicious this looks, I need a cup of rice! This really looks perfection, Julie. And I love love thighs! 😀 Happy FF! 🙂 xx
What lovely flavours in here–the tart cherries and porcinis sound delicious. And to serve chicken skin not crisped is a travesty–the crispy skin looks incredible here 🙂 (By the way, lovely new blog theme! Lots of room for large pictures and it’s so pleasantly airy.)
Thank you on the blog comments! It is a work in progress as you know. This chicken was so good. It was moist and flavorful and being a one pot dish, was easy to scoop up and serve. The skin was delicious. 5 minutes under the broiler assured that.
oooh this looks like a bit of comfort food for me I would love this and for somer eason I want to eat it in Paris in a cafe lol my minds going everywhere it must be the exictement xx than you for coming to fF #68 xx Justine x
This looks delicious Julie! Love the flavours in this! We love cooking with Chicken too 🙂
I need to subscribe to Food and Wine. I miss getting good food magazines!
Thank you Dini. I actually stopped my subscription and I think the last one I got was my favorite! Wouldn’t you know it? We love chicken too and this recipe was delicious.
Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe Julie! Everything looks great and I’ve never had sour cherries with chicken before so looking forward to trying it! 🙂
This looks like a wonderful meal. My husband will only eat chicken breasts, but you’ve made me really miss thighs. I might just have to buy them for myself!
Julie, I completely agree on the versatility of chicken – just love it! This dish sounds just delicious – love that they sit on the potatoes – and cherries are a great addition too!
Thank you Selma! I will definitely make this dish again!
I use dried cherries so much I buy a 10 lb. box when they are on sale and freeze them in portions so I always have some on hand 🙂
Wow where do you find them in that bulk? I love them in granola too.
Dried cherries always pair well with chicken and add such a nice sweetness to a recipe. Oh, sour cream in the sauce – I bet it was delicious 🙂
Thank you Judi for your comment! Especially since you were so kind to let me know that something must have been on the fritz! We really enjoyed this dish. It has so many wonderful flavors going on but wasn’t heavy or too rich.
I’m so interested by the idea of using dried cherries in a savory dish! You’ve opened my mind 🙂
Thank you! It was a great addition. They held there tart sweetness without becoming dried or tasteless!
Hey Julie, my husband would love this recipe, the chicken looks so perfectly brown and crispy. Pinned!Gorgeous photos too. How are you liking self-hosting?
Mine sure did to Lily as did I. Pictures are a work in progress but coming along. I just made the switch last week, and there have been many hours of wondering what in the heck did I get myself into! Learning curves are always difficult, but I am making progress! Always love chatting with you. Thank you for stopping by!
Lily, I have attempted to comment on your ice cream sandwiches but your blog is blacklisting me as a spammer. Any way they are adorable!
Oh no, I have to look into that. I was the exact same way when I first started the self-hosting. I found it was a lot more work in the beginning, but once everything is in place then its okay. I have to say though WP.com does make everything quite convenient. It’s very much a one stop shop solution while WP.org is very a la carte.
This looks right up my family’s alley! I love when you already have the ingredients in your house for a recipe you want to make. I feel as though it rarely happens, but it’s amazing when it does AND the recipe comes out well. Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures and delectable dish with us. Happy FF, and have a wonderful weekend! 😀
Thank you Kaila! I agree and love using ingredients that we know enjoy. I thought this dish came out looking pretty fancy when it was anything but. Those potatoes resting under the chicken were so good!
Julie, so beautiful, so delicious. You’ve really come back with a bang after your op haven’t you? Congratulations on self-hosting, onto perfection for you I see :). I love your skillet, is that a cast-iron one? Where do you get the tart cherries from? I’m going to look at your other posts now and see what I’ve missed :).
Thank you Loretta! I am coming a long with physical therapy but am improving all the time. I’ve had my cast iron forever. We always used when we went camping. Now I use it in my kitchen and it works great. It is so heavy though! I’ll have to keep in shape. I got the tart cherries from Trader Joes. They were dried and worked amazingly well. My site is coming along and there have been so many people that I have bugged with questions that have really helped!
I love one pan meal, but with how delicious this looks, I need a cup of rice! This really looks perfection, Julie. And I love love thighs! 😀 Happy FF! 🙂 xx
Thank you Jhuls! The less clean up the better! Plus I think it adds so much flavor when you cook everything up together!
What lovely flavours in here–the tart cherries and porcinis sound delicious. And to serve chicken skin not crisped is a travesty–the crispy skin looks incredible here 🙂 (By the way, lovely new blog theme! Lots of room for large pictures and it’s so pleasantly airy.)
Thank you on the blog comments! It is a work in progress as you know. This chicken was so good. It was moist and flavorful and being a one pot dish, was easy to scoop up and serve. The skin was delicious. 5 minutes under the broiler assured that.
This looks like a wonderful dish, Julie!
Thank you Nancy! I appreciate your stopping by!
oooh this looks like a bit of comfort food for me I would love this and for somer eason I want to eat it in Paris in a cafe lol my minds going everywhere it must be the exictement xx than you for coming to fF #68 xx Justine x
Thank you! It was a comforting dish that we enjoyed. It would definitely taste better if in a cafe in France!
hehe..the mind can go wandering sometimes x
Ohhhh Julie, this looks incredible!! The combination of flavors has me drooling 🙂
Thank you Amanda!
Thank you Amanda! It was yummy!
Oh, that looks so much like my mother’s cooking. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Ana! It was a new recipe for us and we really enjoyed it!
Another fabulous recipe! I always look forward to your posts!
Thank you! What a nice comment. I really appreciate it.
This looks so delicious, I’d love to ski[ breakfast and tuck into a bowl of this right now!
Thank you!
This does look lovely! I love dried cherries! I would like to see your Mom’s fried chicken sometime! please!
Thank you! My mom doesn’t cook much anymore, and I don’t think she ever loved it much, but I do miss that fried chicken.
Looks delicious!!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thank you Linda!
What a nice combo of flavours Julie!!! I do love porcini, but I never thought to use them with dried cherries!
This was new to me too and we really enjoyed it.
This looks so good! I love the combination of flavors 🙂 Love the site too!
Thank you Sarah! It’s coming along, but as you know there is always something else that you want to do. 🙂
This looks delicious Julie! Love the flavours in this! We love cooking with Chicken too 🙂
I need to subscribe to Food and Wine. I miss getting good food magazines!
Thank you Dini. I actually stopped my subscription and I think the last one I got was my favorite! Wouldn’t you know it? We love chicken too and this recipe was delicious.
Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe Julie! Everything looks great and I’ve never had sour cherries with chicken before so looking forward to trying it! 🙂
Delicious! This will be a great Sunday night meal for my family! Great recipe, Julie 🙂
This looks so delicious !
This looks like a wonderful meal. My husband will only eat chicken breasts, but you’ve made me really miss thighs. I might just have to buy them for myself!
This looks great! I just had dried cherries yesterday in my salad. Yum!