Saturday, March 13, 2010

Recipe #4: Crispy Braised Chicken Thighs

I cooked this two or three weeks ago, but kept putting off blogging about it because I was so "meh" about the result. It was the first recipe I attempted that I have no desire to repeat, which makes me sad, as it's from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home cookbook. I sort of expected to be the most awesome thing I'd ever cooked just because of the Keller magic.

I don't think I cooked it wrong. I don't think the recipe is bad. I just think that Crispy Braised Chicken Thighs with Olives, Lemon, and Fennel isn't quite my thing. I'd never eaten fennel before. At least, I'd never cooked with it, and can't recall eating it in a restaurant. I'm glad I've tried it, but I'm not wild about the flavor. The overall effect of the recipe was both bland and bitter, though my husband did say the house smelled like a fine French restaurant when he came downstairs for dinner that night.

Anyway, here are the ingredients:



And here's the final result:



It looks kind of pretty, at least.