Crawley Family Chicken Thighs with Caper Cream Sauce

 

 

These Crawley Family Chicken Thighs with Caper Cream Sauce are based on a recipe from The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook which I have already posted about.

 

The recipe originally used chicken breast but I prefer the flavour of thighs so that is what I used.  As the book said this dish combines the Edwardian love for capers/salty appetizers.  An inexpensive but still elegant dish. 

 

Ingredients

 

2 chicken thighs – boneless, skinless

2 tsp lemon pepper

1tsp salt

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

4 tsp of fresh dill finely chopped (this is more than the original recipe called for)

1/1/2 tsp garlic powder (I used garlic granules)

1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice (the recipe said ½ cup but I thought that would be too much)

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

1 clove of garlic, chopped finely

½ tsp of sugar

2 tablespoons of dry white wine

½ cup of cream

1 tablespoon of capers (drained and rinsed and roughly chopped) 

 

Method

 

Season your chicken with the lemon pepper, salt, black pepper, dill and garlic granules.  Marinate for at least 1 hour in the lemon juice – the original recipe called for at least 2 hours marinating.

 

Melt butter in pan. Add your chopped garlic and sugar and fry for 5 minutes.  Put in the chicken and increase the heat a bit.  Fry until brown on all sides.  Reduce heat and cook until the chicken is tender.  Remove it and keep it warm in foil.

 

Then make your sauce by heating the stuff in the pan and whisking in the wine and cream.  Whisk away until it forms a nice sauce – no more than a couple of minutes.  Take it off the heat, stir in the capers and you're good to go

Oven Baked Chicken Thighs (Bone in, Skin on)

This is a simple recipe but is tasty.

Ingredients

Chicken Thighs – bone in, skin on

Salt & Pepper

Garlic infused oil

Mustard – powder & wholegrain

Golden syrup

Chilli flakes

Turmeric

Method

Heat your oven as high as you dare

Line a baking dish with baking paper

Pat dry the chicken and then season well with salt and pepper – both sides

Put the chicken in one layer in the baking dish

Mix together the other ingredients and brush the mixture onto the upper side of the chicken (skin side)

I found the mixture to be quite slippery but enough stuck to impart a nice colour and texture.

Bake for about 40 minutes or until the juices run clear – or until your meat thermometer says it's done.

Oregano Lemon Chicken

Thanks to Tina of Squirrel Head Manor, I got to make a version of her Oregano Lemon Chicken.  It was easy to do and the result was delicately flavourful.

Ingredients:

Chicken thighs – mine were boneless & skinless

3 tablespoons Lemon Juice + zest of half lemon

2 tablespoons of honey

1 tablespoon of garlic infused oil

2 teaspoons dried oregano

Small amount of diced onion

Salt & pepper

Method:

Mix the marinade ingredients together in a jar.  Pour over the chicken in your cooking dish.  Turn the chicken over a couple of times to coat with the marinade.  Leave to sit for at least 1 hour.   (If it is hot where you are put it in the fridge)

Bake in a moderate oven basting occasionally.  It shouldn't take more than about 35 minutes.  Take it out when the juices run clear – cover with foil and  let it sit for 15-20 minutes.  I find chicken tastes better when it has cooled a bit.

Gotta get that slow cooker into action – Chicken Thighs Thai style

As part of my quest to conquer my slow cooker, I tried a Thai style dish – Chicken Thighs.  I put a layer of thick potato and carrot slices on the bottom of the cooker.  Then laid the chicken thighs (cut into thirds) on top and added soy sauce, fish sauce, palm sugar, juice of ½ a lemon, ½ tsp of curry powder, 1 frozen pod of yellow curry paste (you could use a commercial paste) and 2 tablespoons of water.

After a couple of hours on low I checked and found I needed to add a little more water.  It is very hard to resist the temptation to take the lid off and stir etc but I understand that every time you do means an added ½ an hour of cooking time.

I added about ¼ cup of coconut milk about 30 minutes before the end. 

One reasonably successful experiment – it tasted like a proper curry.

Chicken Cordon Blue Roll Ups

No, I didn't mean Cordon Bleu.  This dish differs in quite a few ways – the first one of which is that I used chicken thighs, not chicken breast.

Ingredients:

Chicken thighs

Ham slices

Edam cheese

Blue cheese

Parmesan cheese

Dijon Mustard

Cream

Lemon juice

Salt & Pepper

Small amount of flour

Egg

Breadcrumbs

Oil

Method:

Toast your breadcrumbs for about 3 minutes – drizzle them with oil first.  This makes the coating crunchier.

Bash your chicken thighs so they become thinner and bigger.

Season each thigh with salt and pepper and then put the cheeses on top and then roll each one up.  Secure each roll with a couple of toothpicks.

Dredge each thigh in the beaten egg and then roll in the breadcrumbs.  I also add salt and pepper to the breadcrumbs before rolling.

Make your mustard cream sauce by gently heating the mustard cream and lemon juice along with salt and pepper to taste.  If you let it boil (which I did accidentally) the sauce will probably curdle – but it will still taste nice.