Brandy Chicken

A variant on something the recipe book called Drunken Turkey.

Ingredients:
4 bone-in chicken breast halves
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion, about 3 medium
1 cup brandy
1/2 cup beef broth
1 tsp chicken bouillon
5 garlic cloves, sliced
Optional: 1/2 tsp Penzey's Boquet Garni (sp?) herb mix, 6 whole allspice berries

Saute the onions in a wide Dutch oven or large soup pot over medium heat until beginning to soften.

Make room for the chicken breast to touch the bottom, pushing the onions aside, and lay the breasts skin-side down. Cook, occasionally pushing the chicken around in order to keep the onions from sticking, for 6 minutes or until the bottom of the pot is showing golden-brown bits stuck to it.

Add the spices and garlic. Combine the bouillon and the broth; pour over the chicken. Add the brandy.

Raise the heat to medium-high and boil, uncovered, until the steam no longer smells like alcohol. Then reduce the heat to medium-low and cover the pot. Simmer for 45 minutes or until the meat is tender and fully cooked, turning occasionally.

If the liquid is watery at this point, then you can remove the chicken and boil the liquid to make it more concentrated. It will never become thick like a gravy; it's more like a very rich and concentrated broth.

To serve, pull off the skin and cut the meat from the bones. Discard the bones and skin, and slice the meat. Plate the meat and spoon the pan sauce and the onions over it.

If you're worried about fat, you can peel the skin off BEFORE cooking the meat, in which case you need to be more careful about the meat burning. Alternatively, you can pour the pan sauce into a bowl and place it in the fridge until the fat rises to the top, then skim it off. That is more flavorful but also rather time consuming. The usual method of pouring off the fat doesn't work well because of the onion chunks.