A lighter twist on a French classic, Chicken au Poivre

Steak au poivre, a French bistro favorite with peppery, creamy sauce, gets a lighter makeover with chicken thighs. Recipe below.

WE’RE EATING LESS RED MEAT THESE DAYS, for all the various reasons many people are. So when we came across recipes for using chicken instead of steak for the classic French dish steak au poivre, we were excited.

Poivre is French for pepper. Coarsely cracked peppercorns are the slightly spicy heart of the luxuriously rich sauce made with butter, cream (or half & half) and Cognac (or brandy). It’s important that you only coarsely crack the peppercorns, not finely grind them in a pepper mill—the coarse bits provide occasional crunchy bites that show that black peppercorns can indeed provide a nice bit of heat. In the recipe, we give you a couple of ways to crack them.

When cooking steak au poivre, you press the cracked peppercorns into the steaks and cook them into the surface of the meat. For chicken au poivre, you simply add the peppercorns to the sauce after browning the chicken. We use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs for making chicken au poivre—they’re meaty and juicy when cooked. Some recipes call for boneless, skinless thighs or even chicken breasts. We prefer our choice, of course, but you may choose what you like or have on hand.

The end result is delicious, luxurious in a lightened way compared to steak. We served it alongside garlicky mashed potatoes, spooning the sauce over them too. You can also serve it with egg noodles or a crusty bread for mopping up the sauce. We hope you enjoy it.

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Chicken au Poivre

The French classic steak au poivre with peppery, creamy sauce gets a lighter makeover with chicken thighs.

Course Main Course, Poultry

Cuisine French

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 pounds)
• kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium shallot, finely chopped (about 1/3 cup)
• 1 large clove garlic, minced (about 1-1/2 teaspoons)
• 1/4 cup Cognac or brandy (see Kitchen Notes)
• 1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken stock
• 3/4 cup heavy cream or half & half (see Kitchen Notes)
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme

Instructions

• Trim excess fat from chicken thighs and season on both sides with salt. Heat oil in a large, lidded sauté pan over medium-high heat. Cook thighs, skin side down until golden brown, 7 to 8 minutes. Turn thighs over, reduce heat to medium and cook for about 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate (thighs will not be cooked through).
• While chicken is cooking, coarsely crack your peppercorns. Use a mortar and pestle. You can also put them in a zippered plastic bag, lay it on a cutting board and gently crush the peppercorns with the bottom of a heavy pan or mallet. Don’t grind them in your pepper mill or spice grinder; that will make the pepper too fine to provide coarse, crunchy pepper bites.
• Melt butter in skillet along with the chicken drippings. Add shallot and garlic to skillet and cook, stirring frequently to avoid browning, for 1 or 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and add Cognac (this will avoid it catching fire). Return the pan to medium heat and simmer, scraping up any browned bits, until almost evaporated, about 1 minute.
• Add cream, broth, cracked peppercorns, Dijon mustard and thyme to skillet and bring to a rapid simmer. Return chicken to pan in one layer, skin side up, and cover pan. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Check thighs with an instant read thermometer; they need to be at least 165ºF to be cooked through. If not, continue to cook uncovered for a few minutes and check again. When chicken is done, transfer to a plate and continue to simmer to educe sauce until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
• Plate thighs and spoon peppercorn sauce over them. Serve.

Kitchen Notes

Cognac or brandy? Cognac is the classic ingredient for steak au poivre (and chicken au poivre as well), but most recipes say you can substitute brandy. We keep modestly priced E&J VS Brandy on hand for just such uses.

Cream or half & half? We tend to keep half & half on hand, largely because it’s about half the fat content of heavy cream, and it usually does the job. With the sauce here, cream might be the slightly better choice because it thickens more easily. But again, use what you have on hand or prefer. Misen offers an exhaustive explanation of the differences and when (and when not) to substitute half & half for cream. You can read it here.