One very chilly fall day, a dear friend invited me to dinner at her beautiful home in Lacoste (a village in the Luberon crowned by an 11th-Century château that was home to the Marquis de Sade in the late 1700s and later owned by the couturier Pierre Cardin). Somewhere between invite and arrival, the weeknight dinner turned dinner party, with a long table bedecked with local flowers and the platonic ideal of vintage linens and serving ware running the length of her living room straight into the kitchen. Ruth made gin and tonics, pavlova, and a chicken that was not this chicken. But I wrote this chicken recipe for and by channelling her.
1.8 kg chicken thighs (about eight 230 g thighs)
Fine sea salt
2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
2 medium fennel bulbs, trimmed and thinly sliced, fronds reserved
Freshly ground black pepper
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 lemon, halved crosswise
1/4 cup [60mL) pastis (see Note)
2 Tbs unsalted European butter, cut into small pieces
Pat the chicken thighs dry with a paper towel and season with salt (you can also season the chicken the night before and remove from the refrigerator about 1 hour before cooking).
In a Dutch oven or large ovenproof skillet over medium heat, add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the chicken pieces in a single layer to the pot, working in batches, and cook until well browned on both sides, 6 to 8 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate and repeat until all the chicken is browned.
Add the shallots to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the fennel, season with salt and pepper and cook until the fennel starts to soften, 6 to 8 minutes more.
Stir in the garlic and thyme sprigs; season with salt. Cook for 2 minutes, then remove the pot from the heat. Nestle the lemon halves, cut-side down, into the fennel mixture until they press onto the bottom of the pot. Pour the pastis into the pot and add the chicken as well as any juices that have collected on the plate, nestling it into the fennel mixture. Dot with the butter. Roast in the oven until the chicken is cooked through and a deep golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside to rest for a few minutes. If the fennel mixture is still a little too liquidy, continue to cook on the stovetop over medium-high heat until the liquid evaporates a bit more, then spoon the fennel mixture onto a serving platter and squeeze the juice from one of the lemon halves over the top.
Season with salt and pepper. Arrange the chicken on top of the fennel and squeeze the juice of the other lemon half over the chicken.
Serve warm.
Note:
If you’re not a pastis lover, fear not this recipe. The liqueur boosts the sweet, herbal notes of the fennel and shallots without leaving you feeling like you’re sitting down to drink a tall glass of anise. If you are a pastis lover, you’ll likely have some left in your bottle after making this recipe.
