For the last several weeks rhubarb has been back in full force at the Farmer’s Market. When you think of rhubarb you generally think of strawberries which is natural since strawberries and rhubarb are like the Khloe and Lamar of food-  just so darn good together! Rhubarb is, however, a vegetable and it works great in savory dishes too.

I found a recipe for braised chicken thighs with rhubarb over at chow.com. It looked great, but I decided to just use it as my inspiration and then heavily adapted it to my liking and it turned out great. I’d imagine this would work great with pork too so maybe next time I’ll give that a try.

Ideally this recipe would use shallots, but since I had a leek left over from my salmon soup I just used that. Other than that the only modification I’d make next time is to heavier on the black pepper for a little more zip.

Braised Chicken Thighs with Rhubarb

• 6-8 bone-in chicken thighs
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium shallots, finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 inch piece fresh ginger, grated
• 1/2 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 Cup dry red wine
• I-2 Tablespoon of  honey (depending on how sweet you want it)
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 1lb rhubarb, sliced in to about one inch pieces

Preheat oven to 375°F. Season chicken with salt and pepper

Heat the oil in dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear chicken thighs skin down until golden brown about 8 minutes, working in batches if necessary. Transfer the thighs to a plate.

Add the shallots, ginger, cinnamon and cloves, season with salt and pepper, and sauté until the shallots soften, about 2-3 minutes.

Pour in the wine, juice, honey, and water and stir, scraping the bottom of the pot to release any browned bits. Bring to a gentle boil and reduce the liquid by half.

Return the chicken pieces and any accumulated juices to the pot. Add raisins. Place the pot in the oven and cook for 40 minutes until chicken is cooked through.

Remove from the oven, add the rhubarb pieces, cover, and return the pot to the oven until the rhubarb is fork tender, about 10 minutes more.

Remove chicken, discard skin and bones, shred meat and add back into sauce. 

Yields: 4-6 servings

Soul satisfying meal