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With the temperatures dropping, you already know it’s time for comfort food! Tender, juicy Braised Chicken Thighs are simple to make and out of this world delicious. Packed with rich flavors, this easy to make recipe is sure to keep you and your family warm this winter!
So, a couple of hours before dinner I got to work and things came together beautifully. I served this delicious chicken with rice and ladled over the rich sauce flavored with cider vinegar, thyme, and butter. Along with some fresh fruit, dinner was complete. What a great way to ward off the cold weather.
Ingredients For Braised Chicken Thighs
- Chicken Thighs
- Olive Oil
- Carrots
- Onion
- Garlic
- Flour
- Cider vinegar
- Dried thyme
- Chicken stock
- Salt and pepper
- Butter
How To Make This Recipe
- Preheat oven to 350°
- In a large enameled cast-iron pot, heat olive oil. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper then sear in pot. Cook over moderately high heat, in batches until golden brown.
- Add carrots, garlic and onion, cook over low heat until tender. Pour in flour and stir. Continue stirring as you add in cider vinegar, scraping up any browned bits from bottom of the pot. Bring sauce to a boil and cook until thickened.
- Add broth, thyme and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Nestle the chicken in sauce, skin side up. Transfer pot to oven and braise chicken until cooked through. Remove pot from oven and preheat to broil. Transfer chicken to a baking sheet, skin side up. Broil on middle rack of the oven until skin is golden and crisp.
- Continue to cook down sauce until it’s thickened and there is half as much liquid. Stir in butter and season with salt and pepper. Return the chicken to the casserole, skin side up, and serve.
How to Serve Braised Chicken Thighs
This recipe is great for feeding loved ones, so I like to serve it family style, right out of a casserole dish on the table. After the Chicken thighs come out of the oven, I transfer then to a casserole dish and drizzle the sauce on top.
You can pair these Chicken Thighs with all kinds of different side dishes but here are a couple of my favorites…
- Easy Scalloped Potatoes Recipe
- Crock Pot Maple Bacon Green Beans
- Air Fryer Baked Potatoes
- Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes
- Easy Roasted Broccoli Recipe
- Crispy Air Fryer Brussels Sprouts
People Often Ask…
What Is Braising?
Braising is a cooking technique in which the main ingredient is seared, or browned in fat, and then simmered in liquid on low heat in a covered pot. A big benefit of this cooking method is that the meat tastes great and you also get delicious broth, sauce or gravy. It’s one-pot cooking at it’s finest.  Also at the end of the meal, there isn’t much to cleaning up and anything leftover can be reheated or frozen.
With the temperatures dropping, you already know it's time for comfort food! Tender, juicy Braised Chicken Thighs are simple to make and out of this world delicious. Packed with rich flavors, this easy to make recipe is sure to keep you and your family warm this winter!
Ingredients
- 4 chicken leg quarters
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 5 – 6 carrots – roughly chopped
- 1 onion – chopped
- 5 cloves garlic – sliced
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 3 cups chicken stock
- salt and pepper
- 3 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- In a large enameled cast-iron pot, heat olive oil.
- Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper and add to pot, skin side down.
- Cook over moderately high heat, in batches, turning once, until golden brown, about 12 minutes.
- Spoon off all but 2 tablespoons of fat in pot.
- Add carrots, garlic and onion – cook over low heat until tender – 5 minutes.
- Add flour and stir for 1 minute.
- Add cider vinegar and stir, scraping up any browned bits from bottom of the pot. Bring sauce to a boil and cook until thickened, 3 minutes.
- Add broth, thyme and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.
- Nestle the chicken in sauce, skin side up. Transfer pot to oven and braise chicken for about 50 minutes, until cooked through.
- Remove pot from oven and preheat to broil.
- Transfer chicken to a baking sheet, skin side up. Broil on middle rack of the oven until skin is golden and crisp, about 5 minutes.
- Simmer sauce over moderate heat until reduced to about ½ – 10 to 15 minutes.
- Stir in butter and season with salt and pepper.
- Return the chicken to the casserole, skin side up, and serve.
Did you make my Cider Braised Chicken?I’d love to see! Share on Instagram, tag @asouthernsoul, and use the hashtag #asouthernsoul!
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When I was a teenager, my mother suddenly made us something called “Shenandoah Chicken” that looks a LOT like this recipe. It had a frozen vegetable mix, I think, added towards the end of the cook time, but the chicken was braised, the liquid was spooned over rice. It was my favorite meal – I asked for it every year for my birthday dinner. I’ve been looking for that recipe for decades and never found it. But I think this may be pretty darned close!! Thank you for sharing! I can hardly wait to make this!!
Hey there!
Thank you so much Catherine for sharing that beautiful story, food is all about family after all. I hope this recipe reminds you of your mother’s Shenandoah Chicken, there’s nothing better than a reinvented childhood favorite! Thank you for the sweet comment, I hope you have a great day!
~Donya
Donya, this is incredibly delicious. I didn’t have any carrots, so used acorn squash. Didn’t hold up well, but the sauce was so good, it didn’t hurt either. I tasted the sauce as I made it, and became worried about the vinegar taste, but the end result was the bomb! I also added cooked rice to the pot when it was done, but didn’t add enough. This morning I made more rice, and pan seared carrots and added. The leftover was great. I know this was posted awhile ago, but I definitely am going to make it many more times. Thank you! Sue
I love all of this! Thank you so much for sharing, Sue. I can tell you are a great cook.
Have a lovely day,
~Donya
I have put this recipe on my to do list this week. Do you use bone in chicken thighs or boneless? Planing on making roasted garlic mashed potatoes and roasted delicate squash to go with it
Hey Pauline.
I use bone-in thighs because I feel it give the dish more flavor. I hope you liked the recipe.
Have a great day,
~Donya
Is the taste of vinegar overwhelming?
Nope. It’s a great recipe with well-blended flavor.
Sonya has the best recipes! This one is a keeper for my family, it has all our favorite flavors.
Sorry Donya, stupid autocorrect!
No problem, Shelly. So glad you are part of the SS family.
Have a great day,
~Donya
Hi Donya, This recipe looks great, but I’m not crazy about chicken legs or thighs, so can I use Boneless Chicken Breasts instead?
Hey Valerie, you can use the chicken breasts. I would use bone in because you’ll have more flavor that way. If you use the boneless, you’ll need to shorten the cooking time.
Hope his help!
~Donya
Is this apple cider vinegar? Don’t want to use the wrong thing! Thanks!
Hey Allegra, yes, it’s apple cider vinegar. Hope you like the recipe. It’s a winner here!
XO,
~Donya
I made this recipe today for dinner. I only made half the recipe. This was delicious, I wish I had made more. I served it with sweet potatoes (oven roasted with garlic) and steamed broccilli I will definitely be making this again. Thank you for posting this recipe.
WHAT! Oh my goodness, your menu sounds amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your story and I am just tickled that you like the recipe. Send me a pic next time if you get a chance.
Love this Daphne!
XO,
~Donya