Braised Chicken with Brown Rice, Broccoli, and Cauliflower

A long time ago Brit and I tried for something new and decided to cook a lamb shank. We normally don't eat red meat, but we had just bought ourselves a dutch oven and were willing to break our rule for just one night. I had asked my mom if she had any suggestions for what to do with the lamb and she sent us a recipe of hers for a braised lamb shank with a rosemary and garlic sauce. Sadly, for what we to believe were technical reasons, the lamb did not turn out very well. However, the rosemary and garlic sauce was incredible. So, I've wanted to retry that recipe for a while now but try using a chicken instead of a lamb so that we wouldn't feel so guilty about eating any red meat.

The chicken turned out fantastically well. It was incredibly tender and tasty. The sauce was also quite good, but not as good as when we first made the lamb. The flavor infused into the sauce from the lamb was not something we would have been able to replicate with the chicken. Oh well.

We paired our chicken with brown rice, roast cauliflower and steamed brocooli. It was quite a feast.

Braised Chicken

Whole Chicken (we picked up a 4.5 lb. chicken from our favorite Halal Meat Market)
Salt
Black pepper
Paprika
Olive oil
7-8 cloves garlic, chopped
Bunch of green onions, chopped
Onion, chopped
Rosemary
Thyme
Sage
1 cup white wine
3 cups chicken stock (you may need more or less depending on the size of your cooking pot and chicken)


Preheat your oven to 325 F.

Generously rub salt, pepper, and paprika all over your chicken. Heat up olive oil in a medium to large dutch oven. Sear the chicken on all sides until brown. This shouldn't taken more than 1-2 minutes per side. Remove the chicken and set aside. Brown the garlic, green onion, and onion for just a few minutes. Add in the wine and deglaze the bottom of the pan. Throw in the herbs, return the chicken with all of its juices, and then add enough chicken stock to cover half of the chicken. Secure the dutch oven lid and stick in the oven.
We cooked ours for about an hour. We knew it was done because we had inserted a cooking thermometer probe into the thigh of the chicken and cooked it until it was 165 F. We then let it rest on top of the stove for about 45 minutes while we cooked the rest of our meal. Future braisings would hopefully be better planned and the meat wouldn't sit out for longer than 10-15 minutes.

If you don't have a cooking thermometer, I bet any chicken would be done in 1-1.5 hours. If you overcook it, it shouldn't be a problem as the liquids in the dutch oven will keep it from drying out.