Calling the recipe doctors!

So, I made the following recipe:

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs chicken thighs (approx. 6 pc.)
1.5 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp oil
8 shallots, peeled and sliced thickly
1 garlic clove, minced
2 cups chicken stock
0.5 cup apple cider
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp sage
4 sprigs thyme
1.5 lbs. sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4" cubes

Instructions:
1. Season chicken with 1 tsp salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large pan. Brown the chicken on high heat on all sides. Set chicken aside.
2. Reduce heat to medium and saute shallots with the remaining salt for 5-6 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer.
3. Deglaze with cider, vinegar, broth, half the sage, and the thyme. Reduce for about 5 minutes.
4. Add chicken and potatoes. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Remove thyme, add remaining sage. Serve.

It was OK but, boy, it smelled so good at the deglazing step and was so dilute by the time it made it to the plate. Also, the sweets never really looked cooked; they kept the same pale orange color the whole way through. But this seems like it should have worked.

I'm thinking that I need to revamp the whole thing. Instead of a fricassee (or a braise, depending on exactly how you look at it), how about this?: Marinate the chicken in apple cider. After an hour, brown in a pan, then remove to an oven and roast to done. Sizzle the sweets in the pan, then make the sauce as before, and simmer till they're done. Restore the chicken and serve.

Will that result in a sauce, not a broth? Is it too fussy? Is there a simpler way to preserve flavor and not lose it all in the half-hour long boil?

I would suggest the following. Cook the sweet potatoes separately - either baking, then peeling and cubing, or peeling and cubing and cooking in half the cider, stirring occasionally. Then add them to the pan about 10 minutes before serving. After the chicken is browned, and removed from the pan, deglaze with the liquids. You might want to increase the vinegar to 1/4 cup. Then return the chicken to the pan to finish cooking. I think 2 cups of stock might be too much. 1 cup should be enough. When the chicken is almost done, remove it from the pan, stir in the sweet potatoes, place the chicken on top, cover and cook for the last 10 minutes.

[Jenise]

I'm pretty much in agreement with Howie: deconstruct. Toss the sweet potato chunks with a bit of olive oil, season and oven-roast separately. For seasoning, I'd go with salt and the garlic.

Separately, braise the chicken. Two and a half cups of liquid does seem like a lot. I wouldn't increase the vinegar component, but I'd brown the chicken, add the seasonings, the cider and vinegar, then only the chicken broth needed to get the broth level about 2/3 the way up the chicken, but not cover, in a crowded pan. When the chicken's done, remove it to a platter and evaluate your liquid remainder. Add more broth and reduce to concentrate and thicken, then return the chicken and the sweet potatoes to the pan, glaze with the sauce, and cook an additional five minutes to let everything marry up.

Thank you, Howie and Jenise.

When we served the leftovers we added a bit of fresh cider (because the broth had gotten very gelatinous) and boiled to reduce to a glaze. This worked well.

I would look to your chicken stock. How flavorful and rich is it? Weak bland chicken stock can really tame down a recipe.

yes, the reduction is important. the more flavorful the stock is the less reduction is necessary. the dilution can also be fixed with a bit more salt; but more importantly with a table spoon or two of butter into the sauce at the end.

Go to "America's Test Kitchen" web site. They just did a video on Apple Cidar braised chicken that sounds close to your recipe.

Found it: http://www.cookscountry.com/recipes/Apple-Cider-Chicken/21155/?extcode=M00KSCR00

Thanks, Harry.

So, they use a bit of flour to thicken the sauce. They also go down the same path we did: sear the chicken and roast to done, skip the long wet braise in favor of a short hot one.

Made this tonight. I roasted the sweet potato cubes at 400F for nearly 45 minutes and some were still under-done. Hm.

The chicken pieces did come out very well, the sauce had some body, swapping apples for broth was a definite improvement. Flavor is still a little muddled. I might try to punch up the apple flavor a bit more.

And it's not quite a braise anymore. It comes off more as roasted food with a thick, chunky sauce.