Simple and delicious chicken in a creamy chive sauce.
Another One-Pot Wonder
This chicken dinner proves once again that you don’t need every pot and pan in your cupboard to make a great-tasting meal!
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I’ve gotten lazy in my old age. The last thing I want to face now is a sink full of dirty pots and pans. However, I still want great tasting food and if I can do it all in one pan, I’m sold.
This is one of those meals. The chicken combines so well with the tangy sauce, it’ll be a recipe that you’ll come back to again and again.
Subtle Flavors
Lemon is one of my favorite things to pair with chicken. It really brings out the flavor and adds bright and tangy notes to something that’s rather bland.
Have you noticed that fresh lemons are rather pricy lately? That has not escaped me either, but I’ve found a rather good solution. When lemons go on sale or you can find them reduced for quick sale–buy lots of them. Then juice and zest them all and freeze it. Of course freeze the zest and the juice separately. I usually put all the zest in a freezer bag and take out what I need for a recipe. With the juice it gets a little more complicated. What I do there is freeze it in two tablespoon amounts in a freezer bag and some with 1/4 cup amounts because those are the amounts I will generally use. That way I don’t have to thaw and then re-freeze a larger amount.
Chives also add a lovely delicate flavor to the sauce. If you grow them on a windowsill garden, you’re all set. However, I would only advise using dehydrated ones in a pinch. Fresh chives always taste better so use them if you can. I’ve never had success at growing them for some reason, so I will bite the bullet and buy them in the store when I need them.
A Touch Of Creaminess
The sauce has a touch of creaminess to it as well.
The original recipe called for creme fraiche. I can get that in my local market, but it’s quite pricy. A great substitute is sour cream, although that might make the sauce a bit more tangy. There are recipes for making your own creme fraiche, but I find the taste of it somewhere in between sour cream and cream cheese. It’s not as tangy as sour cream, even though sour cream is the most convenient substitute. If you want more of the authentic taste minus the cost, just beat 4 ounces of softened cream cheese with 2 tablespoons of sour cream until it’s very smooth.
The Recipe
- 2 tbs butter
- 8 chicken thighs, skinned, bone in
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 1 tbs flour
- 10 oz hot chicken stock
- finely grated rind and juice of 2 lemons
- 4 tbsp full-fat sour cream -OR- creme fraiche
- 3 tbsp snipped fresh chives
- Melt the butter in a large frying pan over a high heat, add the thighs and brown all over until golden. Season with salt and pepper and then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Add the onion to the pan and fry for 3 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour, add the hot stock and bring to the boil, stirring all the time.
- Add the rind and juice of the lemons, and return the thighs to the pan. Season again and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer over a low heat for about 35-45 minutes, or until the thighs are tender.
- Stir in the sour cream and nearly all the chives.
Adapted from Mary Berry Yum
Chicken w/lemon, YUM! Chicken thighs (IMO) are the tastiest part of the chicken, especially on the bone, which imparts lots of flavor. Would full-fat Greek yogurt work in this recipe, since I like to substitute this for sour cream. Also, maybe a sprinkle of fresh dill on top?
The Greek yogurt is an excellent substitute. I love dill with chicken, but if I were making it for myself, I’d omit the chives–but that’s just my taste. Enjoy!
The recipe calls for 4 tablespoons if using Creme Fraiche or sour cream, but if using cream cheese recipe calls for 4 ounces. Is this the correct unit of measure, not 4 tablespoons cream cheese.
I think you’re referring to a substitute I gave in the post. That’s if you want to make a creme fraiche-like substitute (that I find closer to the actual taste of the real thing) in bulk. If you make up that recipe, you’d use the same amount (4 tbs) that you’d use of the real thing or the sour cream. Hope that helps.
This recipe is definitely worth trying. I also found the comments of storing lemon juice in the freezer interesting. Instead of using separate packets for your two-tablespoon and 1/4 cup amounts, why not use a simple ice tray instead? You just pop out the number of frozen lemon cubes that you need, whenever you need them.
Wonderful idea!! Thanks so much!
I have some questions about serving suggestions… would you serve this with some rice on the side? Or would some steamed veggies go well? Any suggestions for a newbie?
Hi Mark, this would be lovely with rice on the side–especially jasmine or basmati rice. And a nice steamed veg too like asparagus.