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–+ servings

Chicken Braised with Lemon, Sage and Olives

I created this recipe for my father-in-law’s birthday, January 2018. The lemons came from the trees outside of our house in Palm Springs. Though not essential, I prefer to put a sheet of baking parchment over the chicken before covering with aluminum foil to keep the reactive aluminum completely out of contact with the acid in the lemon juice.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings: 12 people
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 18 bone-in chicken thighs skin removed and trimmed of extra fat
  • 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup lemon juice freshly squeezed
  • 14 cloves garlic divided
  • 3 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary or to taste
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons black pepper freshly ground
  • 18 lemon slices ¼ inch thick
  • 18 sage leaves
  • 3/4 cup oil-cured black olives
  • 3/4 cup green olives such as Castelveltrano

Method
 

  1. Make marinade by pureeing the olive oil, lemon juice, 6 cloves garlic, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a blender.
  2. Pour the marinade over the chicken thighs and mix well.
  3. Marinate chicken thighs overnight in the refrigerator.
  4. Lightly oil a non-reactive hotel pan or shallow roasting pan.
  5. Arrange lemon slices on the bottom of the pan.
  6. Put a sage leaf on each lemon slice.
  7. Put a chicken thigh on each sage-topped lemon slice, reserving the marinade.
  8. Scatter olives around the chicken.
  9. Smash the remaining 8 garlic cloves and scatter around the chicken.
  10. Pour the marinade over the chicken. Cover the pan tightly with foil. (If possible, cover the pan with a sheet of parchment before the aluminum foil.)
  11. Put the chicken into a preheated 350°F oven. Cook until the chicken is nearly fall-apart tender, 90-120 minutes.
  12. Using a turkey baster, remove most of the liquid from the pan. Put the liquid into a fat separator.
  13. Turn the heat as high as the oven goes. Put the pan of chicken on the top rack until it takes on some color, approximately 10-15 minutes. You can also use the broiler for this, though many broilers do not have enough heated surface area to brown the contents of a large pan.
  14. While the chicken is browning, skim the fat from the pan juices.
  15. Carefully move the chicken thighs, with lemon slices intact, to a serving platter or individual plates.
  16. Scatter the olives over the chicken.
  17. Pour some of the defatted pan juices over the chicken.
  18. Pass the remaining defatted pan juices at the table.

Notes

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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