Today's project, however, is not of the baking sort. A couple of weeks ago I was watching Rachael Ray's Week in a Day show. I love that woman. I could hang out with her even outside the kitchen. She's so perky! She showcased two recipes that I wanted to try: chicken thighs w/spicy Italian sausage and spicy ziti. I love cooking with fresh veggies especially when I'm cooking Italian. But I have NEVER cooked chicken thighs in any way, shape, or form. I'm a drumstick girl at heart or quick and easy frozen breasts. And very seldom do I fry chicken. Not like when I was growing up at home and my Granny fried chicken once a week. Oooooh that smell! I could always tell what we were having for supper! I'd be walking home from school and you could smell my Granny's cookin from two doors down! Her chicken make you wanna slap ya mamma! But, I digress...
I've never tried to cook one of Rachael Ray's dishes, I usually just drool on myself watching her throw it together on TV. So I was really excited to try this tonite. The aroma of the sausage and the veggies were to die for! So I'm frying the chicken (skin on) in the sausage grease while I'm chopping up the peppers and onions. I'm really careful too, cooking in over low heat so as not to scorch the outside and leave it raw inside, and I'm checking the temp with my meat thermometer. After so long, I just got tired of them not coming up to temp as fast as I thought they should. The veggies were chopped and ready to go in the pan, the dishes I had dirtied were washed, and my chicken thighs were still 20 degrees away from being done. So I did what any wife with a patient, but hungry man would do...I popped them in the microwave and got to sauteing my veggies! Once I did that, dinner came together nicely. I got my peppers and onions tender, threw the sausage back in the pot, and finally my chicken got thoroughly done. I put the chicken on top of the sausage and let it simmer for about ten more minutes and just like that, supper was done!
OH. MY. GOD! I cannot explain to you the DEPTH of the flavors that were going on in this dish! It was spicy, sweet, and smokey all at the same time! The layers of flavor were phenomenal! This has got to be the best chicken I've ever made! I encourage you to try this recipe and see for yourself! Thank you Rachael Ray!
Ingredients
1/2 lb spicy Italian sausage
5 chicken thighs
1 red pepper chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 red onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
paprika to taste
salt & pepper to taste
Directions
Brown sausage, set aside
Sprinkle salt, pepper, and paprika on skin side of chicken. Fry chicken in sausage grease skin side down first. Salt and pepper opposite side of chicken before turning over. When done, cover with aluminum foil and set aside to rest.
Saute peppers, onion, and garlic until tender. Once tender, deglaze the pan with wine and continue cooking for 2 minutes.
Add chicken stock and continue cooking for 2 minutes.
Place sausage back in pan on top of veggies.
Place chicken thighs skin side up on top of sausage. Allow to cook for 10 more minutes.
Serve the chicken topped with the sausage, pepper, and onion mixture.
Take a picture, post on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Google....oh wait, that's just me, LMAO!
The only change I made to this was I omitted the wine and used an additional 1/2 cup of chicken stock instead. Next time I will most definitely use the wine because I'm sure it will add even more depth of flavor to this delicious dish! I hope you try this recipe and love it as much as we did!
See ya in the Kitchen!
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