Lemon-braised dilly chicken and beans with a mint pesto

Even though we got together for the express purpose of drinking lots of wine and eating lots of chocolate, I still wanted to make my friends a dinner than was both healthy and hearty. It's snowy and icy and windy and altogether miserable outside, so I wanted to make sure that the meal I fed them was nourishing and fortifying.

The basis for this recipe came courtesy of one of my favorite places for food inspiration, theKitchn.com. I've learned more tips and tricks than you can shake a stick at from this website.

Within the last year, I have discovered my love of dried beans. That sounds very sad, but let me explain! When you cook them, dried beans get creamy, while still somehow retaining their texture. The convenience of canned beans cannot be denied, but they just don't taste the same. Canned beans are also not nearly as healthy for you, as manufacturers must add loads of salt and preservatives to the beans to keep them shelf-stable. If time is not of the essence, please consider using dried beans.

For this dish, I began by soaking my beans, a combination of half a pound of Great Northern white beans and half a pound of my Sangre de Toro beans from Rancho Gordo. I let them soak for a full 24 hours, but I think you could get away with just soaking them for eight or so, especially if you only use Great Northerns. I only used the Sangre de Toros because I thought they'd be festive (red and white, y'know) and because I had a half open bag that I wanted to use up. Here's what they looked like after soaking and plumping up for a day:

You may have to add a little more water to the bowl over the course of the day as the beans begin to soak up the water. You want to have enough water in the bowl so that there's just an inch or so of water covering them.

Now comes the active preparation. Turn your oven to 350 degrees. Drain your bowl of beans and set them aside.

Chop up an onion and six cloves of garlic. I love garlic, so I will almost always add lots of garlic to every savory thing I cook. It's a weird addiction, but at least it's a healthy one?

On the stove, place an oven-safe pot that holds four quarts at least, because it gets pretty full. Put a few tablespoons of canola oil in it and turn the stove to medium-high. Cook the onions for about five minutes and then add the garlic and cook that for two minutes more. You want the onions to be translucent but now yet browning. At this point, toss your beans into the pot and give it a big stir, coating the beans with the onion mixture. Turn off the heat, because the next bit takes you away from the stove for a bit.

You'll want two wash and dry two lemons, scrubbing a bit to get the wax off the fruit. You'll know you've accomplished this when you can hold the lemon to your nose and it's actually fragrant because the wax seems to dull the smell of the lemons.

Now comes the sorta tricky bit: using a sharpish vegetable peeler, peel the skin from one of the lemons into wide strips. You want to try to get as little of the white part of the peel as possible because it is super bitter. If you do end up with some pith (which I did because my peeler is terrible) you can use a paring knife and scrape some of it away.

Add the peel to the pot and stir. Add about one teaspoon of salt while you're stirring. I also added some ginger that I'd run through a microplane zester.

For you, dear Internet. A blurry reference picture of how much ginger I added.

Now the pot is starting to come together nicely.

After this, add just enough chicken stock to cover the beans by about half an inch. From what I remember, I think it was about 2 cups? If you need more liquid, you can use water. 

Pat dry two pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs then place them directly on top of the beans. Season them with salt and pepper.

At this point, theKitchn recipe calls for sprigs of thyme, but I dislike thyme, so I chopped up a bunch of Italian (plain/flat) parsley instead.

At this point, the pot looks like this. Nice, right?

Behold, I wield a great bunch of Parsley!

Cover the pot up and turn the burner on. You'll want to get the pot a-boilin' before you stick it in the oven. Leave it to cook in the oven for about an hour and a half. During this time, you'll want to make your pesto. Just follow theKitchn's recipe here. After you've made the pesto, and just before you take the chicken out of the oven, chop up a great big bunch of dill and locate that second lemon you so diligently scrubbed earlier.

When your timer goes off--which you've been mindful enough to set because you know how distracted you can get by Facebook/Pinterest/tumblr/other food blogs--take the pot out of the oven (carefully!). The chicken will be super tender and the beans should be done by now.

Break up the chicken with a fork. It should fall apart faster than I do when I watch that Budweiser puppy commercial from the Super Bowl, which is to say, real fast. Add the dill to the pot. Put the zest and juice of the lemon in the pot too and give it a big ol' stir. Taste it and add just a little salt if it needs it. Remember that you'll be stirring in some garlicky mint pesto later that will add another hit of salt to the dish, so don't overdo it at this point.

A great big beautiful pot of herby, lemony deliciousness.

So there you have it. Serve it in a bowl with a dollop of mint pesto and a hunk of some nice crusty bread to sop up the liquid. You may want to squeeze a lemon wedge over top, but don't let me be the boss of you.

Lemon-braised dilly chicken with beans and a garlicky mint pesto
adapted from theKitchn.com
(serves 6-8 hungry people)

Ingredients


1 lb           dried Great Northern white beans
2 tbsp      canola oil 
6 cloves   garlic, minced
1              white onion, chopped
2 cups     chicken stock
2              lemons, scrubbed and dried
1-inch      fresh ginger, grated
1 bunch   Italian parsley, chopped (curly works too)
2 lbs        boneless skinless chicken thighs
2/3 cup    fresh dill
                salt and pepper, to taste

Soak beans for up about 24 hours, adding more water throughout if the beans have absorbed enough that they are no longer covered.

Turn oven to 350 degrees. Drain beans and set aside.

Chop onion and mince garlic. Place an oven-safe, four-quart pot on the stove and turn the heat on medium-high. Add 2 tbsp oil and, when heated, add onion. Cook onion for five minutes and then add garlic. Cook for another two minutes. Onion will be translucent and just barely starting to brown.

Add drained beans to pot and stir, coating the beans with the onions and garlic. Turn off the burner.

Using a vegetable peeler, peel the skin from one of the lemons into wide strips, getting as little of the pith as possible. If you do end up with some pith, use a paring knife and scrape it away.

Add the peel to the pot and stir. Add grated ginger and about one teaspoon of salt while stirring. Add just enough chicken stock to cover the beans by about half an inch. If you need more liquid, you can use water. 

Pat dry two pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs, then place them directly on top of the beans. Season the thighs with salt and pepper.

Chop up a bunch of Italian (plain/flat) parsley and sprinkle over the chicken.

Cover the pot and turn the burner on. Once the pot is boiling, take it off the burner and put the pot in the oven. Cook for one hour and a half.

During this time, make the pesto, using theKitchn's recipe here.

Just before taking the chicken out of the oven, chop up the dill fronds. Take the pot out of the oven. Break up the chicken with a fork. Add dill to the pot. Put the zest and juice of the second lemon in the pot too and stir. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve it in a bowl with a spoonful of mint pesto and a hunk of some nice crusty bread to sop up the liquid. You may want to squeeze a lemon wedge over top, but I'm not the boss of you.