Delicious Craig Claibornes Smothered Chicken

Craig Claibornes Smothered Chicken!

It’s cold outside and when it’s weather like this, all I want is “comfort food”! When Zac was in charge of dinner the other day, this is the main course that he chose to make. He has wanted to make this forever!

Here’s a little background on the dish.
Craig Claiborne was a child of Mississippi who started as food editor of The Times in 1957 and did as much as anyone to help bring home cooking into the spotlight. The dish “belongs in the ‘comfort’ category,” he wrote in 1983, “ a food that gives solace to the spirit when you dine on it”. It is so good that you will want to make it over and over again!

Craig Claibornes Smothered Chicken

Click here to Print Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 chicken, about 3 1/2 pounds, (split the backbone, breast intact and (un-split)
salt, and pepper to taste
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth

Directions:

Sprinkle the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Use a large cast-iron skillet that is large enough to place chicken comfortably opened up. Fold wings under to secure them.

• Melt the butter in the pan and add the chicken, skin side down. Cover chicken with a plate that will fit comfortably inside the skillet. Place something heavy on top of the plate to weigh it down. Cook over low heat, checking the chicken skin, until it is golden brown, about 25 minutes.

• Remove weight and plate. Turn chicken so skin side is up. Replace plate and weight and continue cooking for about 15 minutes more.
• Remove chicken and pour off fat from the skillet, leaving about 2 Tablespoons in the pan. Add the flour to the fat, stirring with a wire whisk over medium heat. Gradually add the chicken broth, and when thickened, return chicken to the skillet, skin side up.
• Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover with the plate and weight and continue cooking over low heat about 20 to  30 minutes longer or until the meat is tender. Spoon the sauce over it.
• Cut chicken into serving pieces, and sever with the sauce.