In this video, learn how to make Chef John's Apple Cider Chicken, a hearty and flavorful dish perfect for those cool winter nights. He simmers tender chicken breasts in a rich brown butter and apple cider sauce, for the perfect balance of sweet and savory. This simple, one-pan recipe pairs beautifully with mashed potatoes or over roasted vegetables.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Apple Cider Chicken.
00:08That's right, if you like apple, and you like sweet and sour chicken, and you like being
00:13told what to do, you should definitely make this simple and delicious dish as soon as
00:18possible.
00:19And to get started, we'll take a couple boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and we will season
00:23them very generously on both sides with a mixture of salt, freshly ground black pepper,
00:28and a little pinch of cayenne, or at least that's what I'm using.
00:32As long as you include salt, you can season this any way you want.
00:35And by the way, these could be boneless, skinless chicken thighs, or other chicken parts, whether
00:40they have bones and skin or not.
00:41Right, your cooking times will change, but the recipe will pretty much be the same.
00:46And once our chicken is seasoned, we will set that aside for a few minutes while we
00:50melt some butter in a skillet over medium heat.
00:53And once it's melted, I'm going to toss in some whole sage leaves, which we will sort
00:57of fry and crisp up in the butter.
00:59And while we will probably use a couple of these leaves to garnish with later, what we're
01:03mostly doing is flavoring the butter and preparing it for our chicken.
01:08And whenever we're frying sage like this, you know you're getting close when the leaves
01:12stop bubbling.
01:13All right, that means the moisture has been cooked out, and you will also see they're
01:17starting to take on some color.
01:19Right, when we see that, we can remove those from the pan, generally starting with the
01:23smaller ones first.
01:26And as soon as that last one's been pulled out of the pan, we can place in our chicken,
01:30starting with the smoothest side down.
01:33And what we'll do, staying on about medium heat, is cook these for about four minutes
01:36per side, or until they're just barely, barely cooked through.
01:41All right, please keep in mind we're going to finish these in the sauce later to reheat
01:45them.
01:46So we don't want to go too far at this point, otherwise they're going to dry out.
01:49And yes, you can raise your heat a little bit if you want, but because these are going
01:54to take a little while on each side, we don't want our heat too high, otherwise the pan
01:58might start smoking, and your smoke alarms are going off, and the inside of your chicken
02:02is still raw.
02:03So this time at least, medium heat is perfect.
02:07And then what we'll do once we think those have gone long enough, is remove those to
02:10a plate, and we'll loosely cover them while we finish the sauce.
02:15And for that, we will add some minced shallots to our pan, and we'll sizzle that in our hot
02:19butter for about a minute.
02:21And just because I'm fancy, and you shallots, you can use any kind of onion here, or garlic
02:27if you want, or any combination, right, that is just you cooking.
02:31But having said that, shallots are really nice in this.
02:35And then once our shallots have cooked for a little bit, we will stop and pour in our
02:38apple cider, or our apple juice, which is our sweet component.
02:44And then we'll follow that with our sour component, which is apple cider vinegar.
02:49And what we'll do is raise our heat to medium high, and we'll wait for the mixture to start
02:52to boil.
02:53And once it does, what we'll do is not walk away, otherwise this will reduce too low,
02:58and possibly burn, which will cause all kinds of sadness and disappointment.
03:02So don't go anywhere.
03:04Just hang out observing things for a few minutes, until you think this is reduced by half.
03:09And no, we don't measure it.
03:10We just look and go, yeah, that looks like it's reduced by half.
03:14And that's it.
03:15To keep the call, we'll place our probably still warm chicken back in, and we'll reduce
03:19our heat to low.
03:21And of course, we will also add the accumulated juices from the plate, since accumulated juices
03:26are the best juices.
03:28And then all we need to do is simmer this chicken gently for a few minutes, until it's
03:32fully heated through and safely cooked.
03:36And while we do that, we should probably turn it over a few times, as well as take a spoon
03:40and baste it with the hot sauce.
03:42Although that's mostly just for fun and for show.
03:45OK, if you want, you can just simply turn this over every 30 seconds or so, until you
03:49think it's done.
03:51And by the way, there are so many ways you can customize this, so feel free to play around.
03:57I mean, you are after all the Jack Bauer of this fruity sweet and sour.
04:01And by changing up the vinegar you use, or the fruit juice you use, or the protein you
04:05use, you'll be able to come up with way more than 24 different versions.
04:10Although I have to say, this was pretty much perfect, so maybe just make it like this.
04:14And then once we do decide our chicken's done, we will remove that to our serving platter.
04:20And then we'll finish this pan sauce in the classic French style, by tossing in a cold
04:23chunk of butter, and we will turn off the heat.
04:27And with the heat off, we will swirl that pan around for about a minute, or until that
04:31butter completely disappears.
04:34And what happens when you add cold butter to an acidic sauce like this, is that fat
04:38gets emulsified in, and by the time the butter disappears, you end up with the most gorgeous,
04:43glistening, beautifully shiny sauce you've ever seen.
04:47Which is not really thick, but it's also not thin.
04:50It's just right.
04:51Oh, and if you did want it a little bit thicker, you'd simply reduce your liquids a little
04:55more before you add the butter.
04:57But anyway, that was looking perfect, although I did decide it needed one more pinch of salt.
05:02Which is why we always want to taste this before we serve it.
05:05So I swirled that in, and then headed over to our chicken, which as you can see are sitting
05:10on some gorgeous roasted vegetables.
05:12And we'll spoon over enough sauce to generously coat, and then serve any extra alongside.
05:18And I'm going to do this on a platter so I can take some pictures.
05:21But at home, you could just plate up, and place the chicken next to the veggies, and
05:24then divide the sauce between the two breasts.
05:27And then since we have them, to finish up we'll place over one fried sage leaf.
05:32And that's it, what I'm calling apple cider chicken, was ready to enjoy.
05:36And that my friends, really was amazing.
05:39And I thought it had a perfect balance between sweet and sour.
05:43Although I did forget my usual trick, where I take a bite off the thinnest, driest end.
05:47And if that's good, which it was, I know the rest of the chicken breast is going to be
05:51perfect.
05:52But anyway, to summarize, no matter where I took a bite, it was good.
05:55Oh, and I mentioned earlier how you could do different variations of this.
05:59But before I sign off, let me get a little more specific, and tell you how amazing this
06:04sauce is on pork chops.
06:05Oh yeah, if you're happy with just some regular applesauce on your chops, you are going to
06:10really, really love this.
06:12But anyway, whether you use a different protein or not, or you make this exactly as shown,
06:17it is deceptively simple, and devastatingly delicious.
06:21Which is why I really do hope you give it a try soon.
06:24So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
06:29more info as usual.
06:31And as always, enjoy!