The January 2009 issue of Bon Appetit featured a menu for a week’s worth of dinners for under $100.  One of these recipes has already made an appearance here – last week’s fish cakes – and a second wound up on our plates tonight, paired with a small salad and a few slices of beer bread from Avalon International Breads.

Tonight’s dinner was a beer and onion braised chicken carbonnade, intended for Friday night’s dinner, but then I didn’t have the beef brother, and then I also didn’t have the beer (amazing, no?), and then I also didn’t have the energy to get either of those things. As it turned out, it was a perfect meal for a night of household chores.  While I browned the chicken thighs (dusted with alspice, salt, and pepper), I did the mise en place and the dishes.  While the onions sweated a bit along with some brown sugar, we folded laundry.  With the chicken back in the pan with the beer and broth, Shane worked on his moped and I got caught up on some office-y tasks, all of which left us hungry and allowed us to give the carbonnade our undivided attentions.  The chicken was moist and flavorful, and the sauce – the sauce! – was wonderfully rich, sweet, and savory when spooned on bites of bread.  I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s leftovers, and to perhaps making this next weekend with the stew meat I picked up this morning.

Recipe:
Beer- and Onion-Braised Chicken Carbonnade from Bon Appetit