I am a huge fan of chicken! Well, yes, I know, it doesn't have too much of a taste of its own... But I guess that's what I like about it the most: It is so open to take flavours of sauces, vegetables, herbs and spices, and then, add to the flavor in its own way. Here's a recipe for braised chicken thighs that has been modified from a recipe in one of the older issues of Fine Cooking Magazine. You can basicly add/delete anything from this recipe, use different meats, different vegetables etc. But the key to good-looking, good-tasting braised chicken seems to be following a couple of basic steps:

1. Brown the chicken first on medium to high heat, adding salt and pepper. This gives the chicken a nice brownish color, helps the meat to become a little tastier especially if you're using relatively dry parts such as breasts, and gives the meat some time to absorb the taste of pepper and salt.

2.Deglaze the pan with some sort of tasty, flavourful liquid, such as white/red wine, soy sauce, chicken stock, vegetable stock, or a mixtue of those (you can also try replacing wine with a bit of balsamic vinegar for a stronger taste, in which case you need to add some sugar to the mixture). Deglazing helps to mix the browned and caramalized tasteful mixtures at the buttom of the pan to mix in the sauce and makes it several times more flavorful.

3. Cover the pan and let the chicken and all the vegetables cook together in the liquid at low to medium heat. You can also choose to simmer the mixture in the oven, which in my opinion, makes it even tastier.

Braised Chicken Thighs

6 pearl onions, peeled

6 chicken thighs

Salt and pepper

Vegetable oil or light olive oil, about 2 tbs.

8 white mushrooms, sliced

3-4 bacon strips, cut on two

1 carrot, sliced

1/2 cup white wine

3/4 cup chicken broth

Thyme

Put the stove to medium-high heat, heat the oil in a pan, then place the chicken on it, add salt and pepper, cover the pan and cook until one side of the thighs are browned. Turn the thighs and add the bacon, onions, carrots and a little later, the mushrooms, cook until the other side of the thighs are browned. When the chicken is brwon, remove the chicken and add the bacon, cook bacon and vegetables together until the bacon is crisp. Add the wine and thyme, bring to a boil, scraping the brown pieces at the buttom with a wooden spoon. Add the chicken back, pouring the chicken stock, boil all of them together until the liquid is reduced to about half its original amount, reduce heat and let it simmer until there's very little liquid left. I like it with mashed potatoes, as I did in the picture, but it would work with rice too. I like drinking minerally, light white wines with it, like the Pieropan Soave in the picture, for which I don't remember the vintage. It just seems to work for me because it kind of balances the extremely strong flavor from the braised chicken, but really, what do I know?...

For the chicken stock, I prefer to make my own stock, which means eating chicken and mayonaisse sandwiches for a while afterwards :) But if you prefer to buy chicken stock, try to choose the ones that have reduced salt. If you can't find one, you might want to consider not adding any other salt when browning the chicken, because these things are pretty damn salty.

Enjoy!

Weekend is the time for being home and re-charging, which I do best when I cook - and even better when I bake. Last try was these cookies, which were just created based on a few recipes and turned out quite well. I cut them before cooking but next time will shape them into round with my hands so that the edges get nice and crispy. Needless to say, they are also much healthier than any cookie you'll buy in the shop.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 egg
65 grams brown sugar
100 milliliters vegetable oil
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
130 grams flour, whole-grain wheat
200 grams oatmeal
50 grams chocolate chips

Cream eggs, sugars, oil, and milk.

Mix in baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

Mix in flour.

Stir in oats, then chocolate chips. Shape with hand or spread on a greased oven plate and cut.

Bake at 190 degrees C. for 18-20 minutes

This is a great vegetarian dish, which I make quite regularly. It's very nice when served on a bed of lettuce, I usually buy the small Roman lettuce (they sell it in Holland under the name 'little gem', in the AH). The lettuce serves as a small dish and balances the spicy taste of the lentil balls. The amount of herbs and spices can be varied according to the taste. In fact I usually use more herbs than given here.

Lentil balls

2 cups red lentils
1 1/2 cups fine bulgur
3 onions, chopped fine
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons cumin
50 grams dill, chopped fine
50 grams flat-leaf parsley, chopped fine
100 grams spring onions, chopped fine
1 tablespoon tomato paste

Sautee the onions in olive oil until golden.

Check the lentils for stones, cook them with 3-4 glasses water. While still hot, add the bulgur and stir. Cover the pan and let it rest.

After the bulgur is soft (5-10 minutes), add the sauteed onions, salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cumin, tomato paste. Mix it all and knead it with your hand until it's a homogeneous mixture. At this point you can freeze part of the mixture, and follow the remaining steps after it has thawed (never freeze it after adding fresh herbs!).

Finally add the herbs and spring onions. Make small long balls of the mixture and serve on lettuce leaves.