It’s my theory that anything cooked with alcohol tastes better. Whether it’s wine, or beer, or vodka, or…pretty much anything! Hard cider in this case. Now, before you dismiss me as nothing but a boozer, remember that when you’re cooking with alcohol, most of the alcohol evaporates, leaving you with a distinctive savory hit that brings out the flavors of everything and ups the ante on the umami, without making you tipsy. Does all of the alcohol evaporate? No, not all of it, but most of it. If you don’t like cooking with alcohol you can of course substitute chicken broth or normal (not hard) cider in this recipe, but let me assure you that having a little alcohol in this dish really does make it better.
This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving, and although I’m not in Canada right now, I decided to make a fall-themed meal to celebrate both Thanksgiving and the end of Oktoberfest. This recipe is from Elise at SimplyRecipes, and it’s a winner! Basically, chicken legs are slowly braised with onions and hard cider, and some browned apples are added in at the end to give the savory sauce a hint of sweetness and extra flavor. It is delicious, I tell you, just delicious! We finished the whole thing between the two of us.
By the way, did you know that the reason Canadian Thanksgiving is in October is because it’s a HARVEST festival? And well, temperatures get a little colder a little earlier up in the Great White North, so we have our Thanksgiving quite a bit earlier than the US. Personally, I feel that having Thanksgiving on Oct 11 is a little more sensible than Nov 25th, but that must be the Canuck in me talking.
I followed the recipe pretty faithfully (I LOVE it when recipes work as written, don’t you?). The only changes I made were to use hard cider instead of brandy and normal cider, and sour cream instead of cream. I just didn’t want to buy a bottle of brandy just for one dish, and since the hard cider at Trader Joe’s was pretty cheap, I went with that. Sour cream is also just a more useful item for me than cream, and I didn’t want half a carton of cream languishing in the fridge for the rest of the week.
It was a pretty good mini Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us, along with an arugula-cranberry salad.
It also gave me a chance to use up those indestructible apples that wouldn’t soften in this tart, but were perfect here. They kept their shape, they were just slightly tart, and they browned and softened up beautifully.
I’ll direct you over to the original recipe for Chicken Normandy at SimplyRecipes, and if you want to use hard cider, you just use 2 cups of hard cider instead of the brandy and normal cider. Also, if you choose to use sour cream, you’ll have to simmer the sauce gently while stirring to incorporate the cream right at the end.
Being in the medical profession, it’s basically predetermined that I’m going to adore anything that’s infused with alcohol. Sad but true truth. I love cooking with the stuff and I love this dish!
Oh my, those photographs are beautiful! I’m so glad you liked the recipe!
Thanks Elise! It will be going into our regular rotation!
What a great fall meal. Looks delicious!
The chicken looks amazing! What a gorgeous photo.
What a beautiful dish! I did not do a good job of celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving this year (I live in the U.S. and the thought of cooking turkey two months in a row is not appealing). I will have to give this recipe a try as a belated means of celebrating.
Cookin’ Canuck – I completely agree. Especially when it’s just the two of us, a turkey seems a little overkill!
Starting it now! It sounds fantastic, and I hope to add it to my collection of Drunk Chicken recipes.
ooo! Drunk Chicken recipes! I love it!
The alcohol not only gives another “taste” to the dish, but helps to make the meat more tender.
This was better than I thought it would be. I wasn’t sure about the whole “apples and chicken” but as it turns out, it was very good and all the flavors blended very well. However, we really enjoyed it and definitely will be having it again soon.