Braised Chicken Thighs with Lemon, Spices, and Torn Basil

June 2025

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, March 2023

We've made Chicken with Vinegar, a simple easy-to-make dish of braised chicken thighs, several times. Apparently it was so popular that ATK developed several variations which they published a few years ago. I finally got around to trying one of them.

This dish uses mostly pantry ingredients, the only exceptions being fresh basil leaves and coriander seeds. The published recipe is for 8 bone-in chicken thighs, way too much for the two of us, so I halved all of the ingredients; 4 chicken thighs provided us two dinners. The chicken thighs were trimmed, patted dry with paper towels, and seasoned with salt and pepper. They were then browned with oil in a 10" skillet over medium heat and transferred to a large plate. To make a braising liquid, all but 1 tablespoon of fat was poured off from the skillet. Minced shallot and garlic were cooked then ground cumin and coriander were added and cooked briefly. Chicken broth and lemon juice were added and brought to a simmer. The chicken was returned to the skillet, skin side up, and baked in a 325° oven until the chicken registered 195°. The chicken was removed to a serving platter and tented loosely with foil. The skillet was placed on high heat and coriander seeds (lightly crushed in a mortar and pestle) were added. The mixture was brought to a boil and cooked until reduced to about ¾-cup. The heat was lowered to medium-low. A slurry of corn starch and water was whisked in and cooked for one minute. Off heat, lemon zest and butter were whisked into the sauce. The chicken was topped with torn basil leaves and served with the sauce. Total time was 95 minutes, about 30 of which were hands off.

Like Chicken with Vinegar, this is a very good chicken dish. It is easy to make and can be done on a weeknight. The lemon juice adds acidity taking the place of vinegar in the original recipe. The sauce was good on the chicken but didn't go well on potatoes like a gravy would. Also, the torn basil added little to the end product so could easily be skipped. A good dish but not necessarily better than Chicken with Vinegar.