Braised chicken dishes are perfect for Sunday night dinner. It’s a great comfort food to end the weekend plus they make the house smell so good. This is a variation on the Greek dish, kota kapama.

Nothing about this recipe is difficult. The ingredients are common – you may even have all of them in your house right now. In America we think of cinnamon as an ingredient found in sweet dishes but many places in the Mediterranean it is used in savory dishes. My favorite is the Moroccan chicken b’stilla, a savory and slightly sweet meat pie. Greeks have been using cinnamon in savory dishes since medieval times. Similar to how Italians may add a bit of sugar to tomato sauce to balance the acidity, Greeks use cinnamon to do the same to tomatoes.

Allspice is actually the unripe berry of a tree native to the Caribbean islands (particularly Jamaica) and Central America. The Europeans gave it its name in the early 1600s as they thought it combined the flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg and clove.

Don’t rush preparing this chicken. The key to getting flavorful chicken is browning it with the spices on the skin side down for 10 to 12 minutes. It will then continue to cook in the braising liquid as the final step. It’s done when very tender – the meat should practically fall away from the bones. The sauce doesn’t have a lot of liquid as that helps to concentrate the flavors. From the prep work to coming out of the oven is about 75 minutes.

When I make dishes like this, I like to make extra so that I have another meal to serve during the week. I served this first atop rice and the leftovers with gluten-free gnocchi. I know that’s not Greek but the gnocchi soaked up the sauce nicely.

Braised Greek Cinnamon Chicken

 

Braised Greek Cinnamon Chicken
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Recipe type: Main Dish
Author:
Serves: 4 to 6
Ingredients
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 6 bone-in chicken thighs (with skin)
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 large red onion, thinly sliced
  • 4 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste
  • ½ cup dry white wine
  • 15 ounces diced tomatoes
  • ⅓ cup chopped fresh mint
Instructions
  1. Mix cinnamon, allspice, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
  2. Pat chicken dry and rub spice mixture all over both sides of chicken thighs. Transfer to a plate.
  3. In a 12-inch pan (with a lid) heat oil over medium heat.
  4. Transfer chicken skin side down to pan. Cook chicken without moving or flipping until well browned and the pieces easily release from pan, about 10 to 12 minutes. (You do not brown the non-skin side.) Transfer chicken to plate skin side up and set aside.
  5. Pour off all but one tablespoon of fat from pan. Return pan to medium heat.
  6. Add onion, garlic and tomato paste to pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is well covered in tomato paste, about 2 minutes. (Onion will continue to cook in the oven.)
  7. Add wine and continue to cook, scraping up any browned bits, until wine is almost all evaporated, about 1 minute.
  8. Stir in tomatoes (with juices) and bring to a simmer, about 1 minute.
  9. Add chicken back to pan skin side up and any accumulated juices from plate.
  10. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for 35 to 45 minutes until chicken is tender when inserted with a fork or screwer.
  11. Transfer chicken to a serving platter. Add additional salt and pepper to sauce if needed. Spoon sauce over chicken and sprinkle with chopped mint. Serve warm.
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Source:  Variation on a recipe from Milk Street, May – June, 2020