Baked Chicken with Bacon, Mushrooms, and Pearl Onions

Baked Chicken with Bacon, Mushrooms, and Pearl Onions

Serves 4

There’s a catch-all category of classic French recipes called grand-mère (grandmother), or bonne femme, which are hearty, rustic dishes, usually served right from the crock or casserole in which they were cooked. In other words, exactly the kind of homey food a French grandmother, or my grandmother for that matter, might prepare, and serve, simply, from the center of the table. These days, advertisers make a big deal of cookware that can go “from the oven to the table,” but generations ago it was the standard—a wonderful bit of style that people took for granted.

Beyond this (optional) presentation, I think this recipe proves the point I was trying to make in the Introduction—that cooking once looked on as common has today become fashionable. (Of course, truly wise people like you and I have always found it delicious.) There’s nothing unusual here, no secret ingredients or earth-shattering techniques, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t love this dish.

Serve this with Mashed Potatoes or Polenta.

 

One 3-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces

Coarse salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons olive oil

¹/₂ pound slab bacon, cut into ¹/₂-inch dice

12 cloves garlic, unpeeled

16 pearl onions, peeled

24 white mushrooms, trimmed

1 cup dry white wine

15 sprigs assorted herbs (such as parsley, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, and sage)

1 to 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour or cornstarch, optional

 

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Wash the chicken pieces under cold running water and pat dry with paper towels. Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper. Set aside.

2. Heat the olive oil and bacon over medium-high heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot large enough to hold all of the ingredients. Cook until the bacon has browned and rendered enough fat to coat the bottom of the pot, about 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain, leaving as much fat as possible in the pot.

3. Add the chicken pieces, skin side down, and brown all over in the bacon fat, 4 to 5 minutes per side. (You may need to do this in batches.) Return the bacon to the pan, along with the garlic, onions, mushrooms, wine, and herb sprigs. Cover the pot and transfer it to the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the cover and bake for another 20 minutes.

4. Use tongs or a slotted spoon to transfer the chicken and vegetables from the pot to a warm platter. As you do, discard the herb sprigs. Skim any grease from the surface of the sauce, and then whisk in the flour or cornstarch to thicken it, if desired.

5. Return the chicken to the pot and serve family style from the center of the table, or divide the chicken pieces among 4 plates, spoon a good assortment of vegetables over each portion, and top with some sauce.

VARIATIONS

Baked Chicken with Red Wine, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, and Pearl Onions

Make this with red wine instead of white wine and add 5 chopped, seasoned plum tomatoes before adding the chicken to the pot in Step 3.

Game Bird with Bacon, Mushrooms, and Pearl Onions

You can substitute pheasant or guinea hen for the chicken, but bear in mind that they’re leaner and therefore cook in a slightly shorter amount of time.

For a more pronounced mushroom flavor, add ¹/₂ cup dried porcini mushrooms (do not reconstitute them first) along with the bacon in Step 3.