Super Frienjis can enjoy 10% off my new Titanium Braiser Pro using code "KENJI10" through October 31!

My favorite part of restaurant work was always family meal; the shared meal the entire staff of a restaurant shares before service to take a moment to reset. Some line cooks or chefs find it to be a nuisance or a necessary evil that takes away from valuable prep time.

This is true, it does. But the real joy of family meal lies in creating something delicious and nourishing out of whatever you can find—the bits and pieces that don’t make it onto the menu, or that are cheap enough that we can afford to eat them in the kitchen instead of sell them to the well-monied customers on the other side of the door.

In many restaurants (especially those that serve a chicken breast at dinner but don’t have a lunch service) that means chicken legs. And over the years of cooking them for family meal, I developed a method that not only delivers the juicy, fall-off-the-bone-tender meat you expect from a braised dish, is not only mostly hands-off, not only gives you the crispy skin that crackles as you cut through it, but is also adaptable to virtually any set of ingredients you may have on hand.

Not a bad combo right?

So how do yo you do it? Read on.

Crisp the Skin

I’m not going to hold back. Here’s the trick: Start by searing the chicken skin-side-down in a skillet until the skin is deeply golden and crackling crisp, then finish it by cooking it uncovered in a gentle oven in a flavorful cooking medium with the skin poking out the top, like the head of a crocodile. The bottom of each leg braises while the top roasts after pan-searing. The result is that chicken that is fall-off-the-bone tender, with juicy, flavor-packed meat, and skin that is crisper than the crispest roast chicken you’ve ever eaten in your life.

It’s a simple technique, but understanding what’s happening makes it useful for a whole lot more than this particular dinner. The other day I made it with white beans, spinach, rosemary, and a basic mixture of onion, carrot, and celery, but the beauty here is adaptability.

Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, legs, drumsticks, or leg quarters are the way to go here. Chicken dark meat, the slow-twitch muscles that gets used regularly throughout the birds’ short lives and thus develop more flavor, fat, and connective tissue, stands up well to the longer cooking that makes a braise tender. In fact, that connective tissue is custom-made for braising as slow, moist cooking converts its tough, elastic collagen into tender gelatin.

After seasoning with salt, pepper, and MSG (relatively gently—any time you braise or simmer something, the seasoning will concentrate as the dish reduces), I start them skin-side down in a braiser in a little olive oil over medium-high heat. As the chicken starts to sizzle, a couple things are happening. First, fat is rendering out of the skin and filling the pan, giving us a nice medium for heat transfer and improving the browning on the skin. Second, the surface of the skin is drying and browning. That browning gives us flavor, while rendering and drying give the skin a head start on becoming crisp.

There is no rushing this process by pumping up the heat. Fat is a great insulator, which means that no matter how hot the pan is, it takes some time for that heat to penetrate into the chicken skin and do its work of rendering fat. (Pumping the heat too high can cause the chicken to burn before proper rendering has happened—don’t rush it!)

It takes about eight minutes, but your eyes and nose are far more important than the clock. You want deep, golden brown (not pale!) with the skin starting to look blistered and crisp. The skin will continue to crisp and darken in the oven as it braises, so flip the chicken a few shades lighter than what you’re going for in the end.

Shameless plug for a second: Well over a year ago I was chatting with the product team at Our Place about how much I’d love to have a braiser that could fit perfectly inside my Wonder Oven Pro. After many iterations and design decisions, that conversation resulted in the Titanium Pro Braiser. It’s a heavy-duty, non-coated, non-stick pan with enough surface area for searing and enough volume to build a stew underneath. Unlike other standard stovetop braisers, I designed mine with handles and a lid compact enough to allow the whole thing to slide into my countertop oven. (Of course, it works in any large countertop or standard oven.)

This recipe will work in any wide, lidded braiser, but you can pick up my Titanium Braiser Pro here, if you’d like. Super Frienjis like you can enjoy 10% off using code "KENJI10" through October 31!

How's the Crowd?

You might be asking something right now, “Kenji, I notice you completely filled that pan with chicken. I thought crowding is a bad thing for browning. What gives?”

Fair question. To be honest, I’m not particularly worried about the thighs sitting close together. Crowding can slow down browning, but for this dish I’m happy to give them a little extra time, as it takes plenty of time for that fat to render anyway. In fact, the moisture that leeches out of the chicken and slows down the browning offers an advantage: the initial period of moist cooking that occurs as those juices bubble out of the pan give the skin plenty of time to render enough fat that the chicken can properly fry and brown evenly once the moisture has all evaporated.

Bring the Beans

The next step is adding your aromatics. In this case, it’s a classic mix of carrots, onions, celery, and garlic, along with a couple of sprigs of rosemary. I’m not particularly interested in browning the vegetables—browned meat adds savory complexity while browned vegetables typically add sweetness—just sweating them down before adding a few handfuls of baby spinach. (I personally enjoy the flavor and texture of spinach that has been cooked for a loooooong time, but if you prefer it brighter and greener, save the spinach for the very end.)

Next is a couple of cans of white beans. You can use dried beans (soak them overnight and boil them in salted water until tender), but given the simplicity of this meal, I virtually always opt for canned beans unless I already have cooked beans ready. When adding the beans, make sure to add the liquid as well. This protein-rich bean liquid not only adds body to the finished braise, but it also offers a chance for further browning.

More on that later.

Once the beans are in, I add enough broth to cover the beans, then taste for seasoning. Remember: the broth is going to reduce as the braise spends time in the oven, which means that it should taste distinctly under-seasoned at this point to account for evaporation.

Skin on Top

Once the beans are simmering, I nestle the chicken on top of it, making sure that the skin stays mostly above the level of the liquid. Like golden brown islands in a beany atoll.

Then put the whole pan into a 350°F oven, uncovered, for about 45 minutes.

Why uncovered? It’s because a lid traps moisture and keeps the space above the food humid. That’s useful for many braises, but here we want moisture to escape from the skin so it can crisp as the meat underneath slowly softens.

As the braiser simmers and reduces, you’ll likely also see the surface of the liquid itself starting to brown. This is good! As the liquid reduces, proteins from the beans and chicken start to float on top of the surface of the braising liquid. As that liquid reduces, that raft of proteins becomes more and more concentrated, until they’re actually able to undergo the Maillard browning reaction—just like a steak or a chicken leg—adding flavor and depth to the broth.

This is the same browned raft that forms in a classic French cassoulet, where traditionally that raft is submerged and allowed to reform multiple times as the stew braises, adding depth and flavor to the broth underneath.

Once the chicken is tender, the broth is reduced to a rich sauce, and the skin is perfectly crisp, I finish it with a very simple drizzle of minced rosemary, lemon juice, and olive oil.

Variations to Try

Once you understand the arrangement—browned chicken above, a flavorful braise below—you can change what goes underneath it.

My braised chicken with cabbage, bacon, and potatoes is another one-pot meal built around chicken and vegetables. For a different direction with beans, there’s braised chicken with beans and chile verde. And crispy braised chicken with tomatoes, carrots, and kale gives you another combination to work from. The “or whatever” in that last video’s title is a pretty good description of how I think about this kind of cooking.

Try a tomato sauce with olives and capers, or caramelized onions with lentils and kale. Cooked barley or other grains can take the place of the beans. So long as the cooking times match up and the chicken sits above the liquid, I promise dinner will be good. (Or at least look good!)

Recipe: Crispy Braised Chicken with White Beans and Spinach

Every recipe I publish here is personally tested, tasted, and approved.

What I love about this recipe:

The tender juiciness of slow-cooked braised chicken with the crisp skin of a roasted chicken.

Everything cooks in one pan, with the beans soaking up the chicken’s juices while the oven does most of the work.

A quick lemon–rosemary oil adds fresh fragrance and acidity to balance the rich braise.

Serves: 4 to 6Active time: About 30 minutesTotal time: About 1 hour 20 minutesNotes: 

For fresher spinach, omit it in step 4. After baking, transfer the chicken to a plate, stir the spinach into the hot beans until wilted, and return the chicken to the pan.

If using home-cooked beans, substitute about 3 cups cooked white beans plus some of their cooking liquid. Adjust the stock to achieve the same brothy consistency and keep the chicken skin exposed.

Other greens you can use include chopped kale, chard, or mustard greens can replace the spinach. Remove tough stems and allow sturdier greens enough time to soften.

The liquid level is more important than the measured quantity of stock. Use a pan that holds the thighs snugly in a single layer, with room for the beans underneath.

Ingredients

For the chicken and beans:

6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, about 2 1/2 pounds (1.1 kg) total

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

MSG, to taste (optional)

1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil

1/2 large onion, finely diced (about 150 g)

1 medium carrot, finely diced (about 100 g)

1 large celery stalk, finely diced (about 60 g)

3 sprigs fresh rosemary

4 medium garlic cloves, roughly minced

5 ounces (140 g) baby spinach

2 (15 ounces or 425g) cans white beans, such as cannellini or great northern, with their liquid

About 1 cup (240 ml) low-sodium chicken stock or water, plus more as needed

For the lemon–rosemary oil:

2 teaspoons very finely minced fresh rosemary leaves

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons (30 ml) fresh lemon juice

5 tablespoons (75 ml) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving if desired

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

A pinch of MSG (optional)

Directions

Heat the oven and season the chicken. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). For a countertop oven, use the lower rack, with adequate clearance above the pan. Pat the chicken dry and season on both sides with salt, pepper, and a little MSG, if using.

Brown the chicken. Heat the olive oil in a wide, oven-safe braiser or deep sauté pan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the chicken skin-side down in a single layer. Cook, adjusting the heat as necessary, until the skin is deep golden brown and some of its fat has rendered, about 8 to 12 minutes. Flip and cook until lightly browned on the second side, about 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate, skin-side up, leaving the rendered fat in the pan. If there is an unusually large amount of fat, spoon off the excess, leaving about 2 tablespoons.

Sweat the vegetables. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and rosemary sprigs. Cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables have softened without taking on much color, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Build the braise. Add the spinach and cook, stirring, until wilted. Add the beans with their liquid and enough stock to make a brothy stew, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a simmer. Taste and season lightly with salt and pepper, leaving the liquid slightly less salty than you want the finished dish.

Add the chicken and braise. Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the pan. Nestle the thighs into the beans skin-side up, keeping their skin above the liquid. Add a little more stock if needed, or spoon some liquid out if it covers the skin. Transfer to the oven and cook uncovered until the chicken is very tender and the skin is crisp, about 45 minutes. Check the pan during cooking; if the beans begin to dry out, add a little stock or water around the chicken.

Make the finishing oil. Meanwhile, while the chicken rests briefly, stir together the minced rosemary, lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil in a small bowl. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and MSG, if using.

Finish and serve. Remove the three rosemary stems from the beans (or leave them in and let your guests pick them out themselves, the lazy ingrates). Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning. Drizzle the lemon–rosemary oil over the beans and around the chicken. Serve in shallow bowls with the chicken skin-side up on top of the beans and spinach. Add another drizzle of good olive oil if you like.