Chicken Fricassee

A classically slow-cooking dish, Chicken Fricassee is a great dish for entertaining.  You start by pan searing bone-in, skin-on chicken, then sautéing any vegetables you like (I like onion, celery, carrot, mushroom, and asparagus, but you can change as you'd like) then cook everything in a rich broth.  I like this served over grits, but rice or any starch will do.

Chicken Fricassee

Ingredients

• 6-8 chicken thighs or 1 whole chicken cut up into 6-8 pieces (bone-in skin-on either way)
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 8 oz. cremini mushrooms, quartered
• 8 oz. asparagus, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. Wondra or AP flour
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 3 sprigs thyme
• salt & pepper, to taste

Serves 6-8
Cook Time: 1 1/2 hours

Heat a Dutch oven or high walled saute pan over medium-high heat and pan sear each side of chicken until golden brown and crispy, but do not worry about cooking through; this may take two batches, do not crowd the chicken or it will steam and not brown well.  Remove browned chicken and set aside.
Add onions, celery and carrots to pot, cook to soften; add garlic and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms give up their juices and start to brown, then add asparagus and cook for a few minutes till bright green.  Add Wondra and cook to remove raw taste.  
Deglaze with wine, scrapping browned bits off the bottom of the pan, cook wine until alcohol cooks off.  Add stock and thyme sprigs and bring to a simmer.  Add chicken back to pan and allow to cook through to 165, covered; this will continue to cook low and slow for 45 minutes to an hour.  You can continue cooking over the stove or pop it in an oven set to 300.   
Great over creamy stone ground grits.