poulet grandmere

French for "my grandma's chicken" French grandmas discovered that thyme and chicken were made to be friends. A hearty cold weather meal that takes about an hour. Use a nice crusty bread to sop up the sauce and balance the heaviness of it with a nice green salad.

Use bone-in and skin-on chicken to keep the chicken moist. Using boneless/skinless here makes for tough stringy chicken. Also important to chop the spuds and 'shrooms so they are about the same size as the pearl onions.

---

Splash of olive oil
1 package of chicken thighs
1 package of drumsticks
Hawaiian salt and black pepper
6 large cloves garlic, unpeeled
Fresh thyme (dried is OK too)
1 bag of red pearl onions (white are OK too)

4-5 Yukon gold potatoes, 
  cut into bite-sized chunks
1 package of brown or white mushrooms, 
  quartered
About 2 cups chicken broth
Half-to-a-third package of bacon, 
  cut into 1-inch (or so) bits

---

Salt and pepper chicken. Splash olive oil into a deep-ish pan. Heat to medium. Cook skin side down until the skin is very crispy and brown. Flip and do the same to the other side. When both sides are nice and crispy, transfer to a 9 x 13 baking pan. Don’t worry if the juices are not quite clear—the chicken will bake afterwards.

In the same pan, skim off most of the fat, reduce heat to medium-low, and add onions, garlic, and thyme. Cook for 10 minutes until they start to brown, then add potatoes and bacon. Cook until everything mixture is nice and brown and the bacon is getting crispy. Toss in the mushrooms and chicken stock. Turn up the heat and reduce the liquid a bit.

Using a slotted spoon, put vegetables on the bottom of the 9 x 13 pan (you will have to shift the chicken around), and put the chicken on top of the vegetables. Pour remaining liquid over the chicken and vegetables. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes.

---