Skinless Chicken Thighs with Shallots in Red Wine Vinegar (Poulet Au Vinaigre)

I was a little unsure about this meal. First, it's French, and you know how particular French food can be. Second, the sauce is based on vinegar. Will my daughter like it? Will it be a waste of time?

Turns out the sauce was fantastic!

I didn't make enough chicken though. We blew through it pretty quickly so in retrospect, I should have doubled what I made. Oh well, lesson learned.

I also threw together some simple mashed potatoes to serve with the chicken. 

Skinless Chicken Thighs with Shallots in Red Wine Vinegar (Poulet Au Vinaigre)

(from here)

3-6 lean chicken thighs, skin removed

salt and fresh pepper

1 tsp butter

1 large shallot, diced (3/4 cup)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup fat free chicken broth
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp light sour cream

1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley (for garnish)

Simple Mashed Potatoes (un-pictured)

1 lb potatoes, peeled, cubed and boiled 'til mushy

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons sour cream

1 tablespoon parmesan cheese

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

a splash or two of chicken broth

salt & pepper

(just mash everything together)

==

Begin by searing your chicken.

Melt the butter and get it hot. Place the chicken in the pan and don't touch it for about 5 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper.

Again, I'd make 6 next time for us.

Turn the heat down to medium and flip the chicken. If the pan was hot enough when you seared them, it shouldn't be too difficult to get them unstuck. 

Cook until they are browned uniformly, 3 minutes or so.

Remove from the pan and set aside for now.

Add the garlic and shallots to the pan and cook for 60 seconds.

Deglaze with the 1/2 cup of wine. Get scraping on the bottom of the pan. Get those bits up.

Add the 1/2 cup red wine vinegar, 1 cup fat free chicken broth, 1 tbsp honey and 1 tbsp tomato paste and whisk to combine.

Throw the chicken back in the sauce.

Cover and cook for 20 minutes on medium/low heat.

You'll see the sauce has reduced a bit.

Remove the chicken (again) and add the 2 tablespoons of sour cream.

Whisk to combine and check to see if the sauce is too thick. 

I added 2 cubes of my delicious homemade chicken broth to loosen it up a bit.

Bam. That's what we're looking for.

 Add the chicken back into the pan and coat with sauce. Cook until the chicken is warmed back up.

I served it over the mashed potatoes with some parsley as a garnish.

While, as I said, this was about half the food I wanted to eat, it was very tasty. The sauce was a little tart, but mellow and sweet and rich tasting (even though this is pretty low cal). The tomato was a nice sort of base flavor with the garlic and shallots and wine coming through really nicely.

The sauce went really well with the potatoes and the chicken ended up being very tender.

Give this recipe a try if you want to tackle a pretty approachable French recipe!

Enjoy!