Lager-Simmered Chicken Thighs
Jackie Dodd-Mallory
(Senior Editor)
I’m in Panama right now, but I already told you that. I’m mid-menu-consultation for a brewpub in Panama City, and I made them all stop (yes, they are waiting on me) so that I could share this recipe with you. And the book it came out of.
When I find a great cooking with beer recipe, I need to share it, and this one was good I even ate the leftovers. Any recipe developer/food blogger will tell you how rare that really is. You make so much food, most of it does not get saved for leftovers. You will just be making and eating more food the next day. This is a save-worth, and share worthy.
Kristy from She Eats is a fellow cooking-with-booze-enthusiast, so much so that she wrote a book called Cooking With Cocktails: 100 Spirited Recipes, a concept I can get behind.
So here it is, I need to get back to working on this menu with the awesome crew down here in Panama, I’ll tell you more about that in a few weeks.
Lager-Simmered Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 3 slices thick-cut bacon chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
- 4 chicken thighs bone in and skin on
- Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 large carrots halved lengthwise and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
- 2 garlic cloves thinly sliced
- 8 ounces button mushrooms wiped clean and quartered
- 2 cups lager beer low-hop beer works best
- 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- 1. Heat a large frying pan over medium-heat.
- 2. Add the chopped bacon and cook until crispy, 12 to 15 minutes. ?Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- 3. Season the chicken amply with salt and pepper. Arrange, skin side down, in the pan of bacon fat and cook until browned and crispy. Flip to brown the bottom and then remove from the pan and set aside with the bacon. Discard all but 4 tablespoons of the fat.
- 4. Add the onion and carrots to the pan and sauté until so . Add the garlic, stirring for about a minute, and then the mushrooms. Stir and continue to cook until the mushrooms begin to brown just slightly.
- 5. Raise the heat to high and pour in the beer. Sprinkle with the nutmeg.
- 6. When the mixture comes to a medium boil, put all the chicken (skin side up, to keep it crispy) and about three-quarters of the bacon back into the pan, reserving the rest of the bacon to nish the dish. ?
- 7. Lower the heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced, about 45 minutes.
- 8. Remove the chicken from the pan.
- 9. Add the cream, stirring constantly until warm, and boil until the ?sauce is somewhat thickened.
- 10. Return the chicken to the sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary.
- 11. Add the parsley, sprinkle with the reserved bacon, and serve.
Notes
Swap out the lager here for a darker beer as the weather turns from hot to cool. Use whatever beer speaks to the season, to keep it fresh and inspired.
I was given a review copy of Cooking with Cocktails without expectation or obligation. All opinions are my own.
Comments
Josh @ The Kentucky Gent February 27, 2017 um 11:49 am
YUM! This look delicious, and I’m bookmarking this to try my hand at this weekend for dinner for the boyfriend and I. Hope you have a blast in Panama!
Jackie February 28, 2017 um 6:46 am
You should! Thanks so much, I LOVE Panama!
Colleen Davidson March 1, 2017 um 8:08 pm
I made this tonight and I’m obsessed. Used Two Brothers Twenty-Plus Pilsner, which is local for me. It was phenomenal, thanks for posting!
Jackie March 2, 2017 um 12:56 pm
Oh good! Glad you liked it as much as I did 🙂
Andrew burns December 15, 2019 um 1:57 am
I cooked this last night and it was amazing in fact, so good im cooking it again today. But this time not going to add salt to the chicken as there is a lot in the bacon, only after to serve. Thanks so much
Jim April 15, 2020 um 5:06 pm
OK, Mine didn’t look as good as yours, but it was delicious. I use a local Czech pilsner, rich caramel notes, not too hop forward. Family loved it.