PW: Peach Whiskey Chicken

I'm late to the party on posting this, as it's already November 11, and this was an October recipe.  But we did cook this in October. Or I think we did.  It may have slipped in on November 1.  I don't remember.  (Which is sad in and of itself, that I can't remember 10 days ago.  But that's another worry!)

This was actually my pick, and when I learned it was my month to pick, I flipped through our two Pioneer Woman cookbooks and realized that we've really cooked up a storm this past year!  I wanted to pick an entree rather than a side or dessert, because entrees help me force the issue for me to cook real meals when I really otherwise might want to be lazy and either do something pitiful or something we cook all the time.

But I also realized that I've tended to pick chicken recipes, and this was of course no exception.  Bummer.  I need to branch out to the PW blog more often, I suspect.

In any event, here's the scoop:

PW: Peach Whiskey Chicken

Verdict:  Yummy!  Not earth-shatteringly so, but still a nice step up for a weekday meal.
Cook it again: Probably.  This time, with a side.
Cost factor:  It added up, because of the peach preserves, the whiskey and the unreasonably expensive chicken prices around here lately.  But under normal circumstances, pretty inexpensive.
 
I have to admit a few things:

(1)  I don't know the differences between whiskey, scotch, and bourbon.  I have looked it up and tried to commit it to memory about a million times, but I can't get my brain around it.  Labels that say "bourbon whiskey" don't help me.  Since this was all I could find in our house (that didn't clearly say it was bourbon or scotch, that is), I went with it.  Mick said it was bourbon.  Oh well.

(2) Pioneer Woman has a tendency, I think, to add lots of ingredients that I am not convinced that I can taste.  I had hoped for some awesome flavor here but although the sauce was tasty and I could taste the peach flavor, I really couldn't taste the whiskey.  Maybe that's because I inhaled so much of it (no, I mean literally!  I wasn't drinking.  I poured it into the pot and about choked on the vapors!) that I was scarred?  Mick said he could taste the tones of peach and the bourbon/whiskey.  Maybe if I had this side-by-side with a similar recipe without these ingredients I would be able to tell the difference?

In any event, this recipe is amazingly simple to pull together and could very easily be made in a slow cooker if you wanted.

You brown up some chicken:

I provided Mick with what I thought was a detailed grocery list.  Sometimes my level of detail is actually more confusing to him, but this time I think the confusion was all his own.  I said we needed 10-12 chicken legs.  He came home with thighs.  I said, "I didn't realize I told you thighs... the picture shows drumsticks."  He answered, "No, you didn't.  Your list said chicken legs. I didn't know what part of the leg.  So I went with thighs, because I like them better."

I panicked for a moment, until I re-read the recipe and saw where PW says an excellent and tasty substitution is to use thighs instead of drumsticks.  Phew.

Still, thighs take up more space, so it took me a little longer and a few rounds to get them all browned.  Then I took them out of the pot and added some chopped onions to the hot oil.

Then I added the peach preserves, the bourbon/whiskey, and some barbeque sauce and Worcestershire.  (I didn't specify what I wanted for barbeque sauce and although the recipe says "use your favorite," I don't have one.  So Mick bought the generic stuff.  It worked just fine.)

And that's it.  You let it simmer in the oven for a few hours, take it out, and serve it over mashed potatoes or noodles.  I kind-of forgot to make a side, so we whipped something up quickly -- but I don't even remember what we did.

Oh well.  That's what I get for failing to post this in a timely manner!

Ultimately, this was yummy, flavorful, and easy.  I don't know that I'd cook it for company because I don't tend to cook stuff like this for company.  But there's no other reason not to, and I think it would be a hit.

Just don't forget the mashed potatoes.

--Jen

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