Name: Wine-braised chicken thighs with grapes, capers, lemon and parsley
Cook time: 80 min
Total time: 80 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: olive oil, for cooking; 1.5 kilogram chicken thighs, bone in, skin on, at room temperature; 4-6 small onions (eg pickling onions); 1 cup dry white wine (eg riesling) or verjuice or grape juice; 1 cup chicken stock*; 1 tablespoon capers; 1 lemon, zest; 1/2 lemon, juice; 200 gram grapes (red or white), left on stems; 1-2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

Wine-braised chicken thighs with grapes, capers, lemon and parsley

Dairy-free, gluten-free dinners don't get much better than this! Nadia Lim's chicken thigh recipe is punctuated with the sophisticated flavours while managing to be oh-so easy to execute

Wine-braised chicken, grapes, capers, lemon and parsley

Serves 6

Cook

1H 20M

Ingredients

olive oil, for cooking

1.5 kilogram chicken thighs, bone in, skin on, at room temperature

4-6 small onions (eg pickling onions)

1 cup dry white wine (eg riesling) or verjuice or grape juice

1 cup chicken stock*

1 tablespoon capers

1 lemon, zest

1/2 lemon, juice

200 gram grapes (red or white), left on stems

1-2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

Method

1.Preheat oven to 180°C.

2.Heat a good drizzle of olive oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Pat chicken pieces dry with paper towels and season with salt. Brown chicken, skin-side down, in batches until a lovely golden brown (but do not cook all the way through). Set aside in a roasting dish.

3.While chicken is browning, top and tail onions, cut in half and remove skins. When all chicken is in roasting dish, add onions to frying pan, cut-side-down, and cook in the chicken fat for 1-2 minutes, until browned. Transfer to roasting dish.

4.Add wine to frying pan and allow to bubble for a few minutes while you use a wooden spoon to stir and rub brownings from the bottom of the pan, releasing them into the liquid. Add any juices from the resting chicken back to the pan.

5.Add stock, capers, lemon zest and juice. Simmer for a few minutes, stirring often, until sauce has slightly reduced.

6.Pour sauce into roasting dish but avoid wetting the chicken skin (this way the skin will be nice and crisp when cooked). Top with grape clusters and roast in oven for 40 minutes or so, until chicken is tender and meat comes away from the bone easily. (Alternatively, if you have a large ovenproof frying pan, you could do both the frying and roasting in one pan.)

7.Garnish with parsley. Serve with creamy garlic and rosemary mash and lemony green beans, or crusty bread and salad.