Port Wine Chicken

May 25: National Wine Day

We previously posted recipes for Marsala Chicken and Champagne Chicken. Something similar is Port Wine Chicken. These recipes involve common cooking techniques, such as browning the chicken in butter or oil, sautéing onions and mushrooms, adding seasonings and/or herbs and pouring in some sweet wine to make a sauce or gravy.

Whereas Marsala wine is from Italy and Champagne is from France, Port is from Portugal. The fortified, sweet red wine enhances the flavor of the food in which it is cooked yet does not make the meat taste too alcoholic or acidic at all.

Instead of Marsala or Champagne, try putting Port in a braised chicken with mushrooms dish in observance of National Wine Day. Saúde!

Recipe

(Adapted from Chef Ponzio)

• 4 large chicken thighs (with bone, with or without skin)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• ¼ cup parsley, chopped
• 1 container (8 ounces) button mushrooms, quartered
• 1 ½ cups port wine
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

Salt and pepper the chicken thighs. In a large pan, brown them in the olive oil. Remove from the pan and keep warm. Drain off any oil.

Chop the onions and parsley and quarter the mushrooms. In the same pan, sauté the onions with the parsley.

Add the mushrooms and cook until brown. Put the chicken back in the skillet. Pour in the port wine. Cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Watch that the wine is not reduced too much and that there is still a little liquid left for some sauce. Remove the chicken to a platter and keep warm. Melt the butter into the sauce and stir until smooth. Ladle the sauce and mushrooms over the chicken. Garnish with parsley leaves. Serve with rice or pasta.

Notes

• If you like a lot of mushrooms in this dish like we do, double the amount and add half a cup more of Port.
• Check out more chicken recipes by searching our blog.