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This Braised Apple Cider Chicken is made into a complete meal with Brussels Sprouts and Bacon. It’s the perfect one pan fall dinner recipe! Packed with vegetables and hearty autumn flavor, this dish will be the hit of any dinner, weekday or weeknight! Made in partnership with my friends at Farmer Focus.
Braised Apple Cider Chicken with Bacon and Brussels
The salty bacon, sweet apple cider sauce, brussels sprouts, and perfectly cooked fall off the bone chicken is the ultimate flavor combination for when you are craving something comforting! I love this Braised Apple Cider Chicken for an easy weeknight meal that everyone will love. It’s dairy-free, grain-free, and low-carb, made with only a few simple ingredients and made into a complete one-pan dinner.
Ingredients Needed
- Bone-in Chicken Thighs or Drumsticks
- Fresh Apple Cider
- Bacon
- Leeks
- Garlic
- Cinnamon
- Salt and Pepper
- Fresh Thyme
- Dijon Mustard
- Maple Syrup
I am so excited to partner with my friends at Farmer Focus (formerly Shenandoah Valley Organic) for today’s awesome dish. Farmer Focus is a locally minded company that prides itself on producing the highest quality chicken grown on family-owned farms. This company allows you to actually see what farms your chicken is coming from, since each package you pick up at the store has a Farm ID for easy navigation on their website!
Watch the video:
Want other delicious chicken recipes? Here are some favorite:
- Chicken Burrito Bowls
- Honey Mustard Chicken Wings
- Low Carb Chicken Parmesan
- Air Fryer Chicken Tenders
Braised Apple Cider Chicken Dinner
Ingredients
- 5 pieces nitrate-free bacon
- 2 pounds bone-in chicken drumsticks and or chicken thighs
- 1/4 cup leeks diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper more to taste
- 1/2 pound brussels sprouts quartered
- 1 bundle fresh thyme
- 2 cups fresh apple cider
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard more to taste
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
Instructions
- In a large dutch oven, cook bacon until crispy over medium heat. Remove from pan and set aside on a plate lined with a papertowel. Pour out all but 2 teaspoons bacon fat.
- Heat the bacon fat over medium-high heat.
- Pat the chicken dry and season generously with salt and pepper.
- Sear chicken until brown on both sides in the dutch oven. This should take about 5 minutes per side.
- Take chicken out of the pan and set aside on a plate.
- Add the leeks, garlic, a pinch of salt, a pinch of black pepper, and cinnamon. Stir well, making sure to scrape up the brown bits at the bottom of th pan. Cook until leeks are translucent.
- Add in the brussels sprouts and stir until combined. dijon mustard and thyme. Stir well.
- Pour in the apple cider and mix until everything is well combined. Make sure all of the brown bits from the bottom of the pan have been scraped up. Cover and bring the sauce to a boil. Lower the heat, and add back in the chicken. Cover and let simmer for 15 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked through.
- Take the chicken, brussels sprouts, and thyme sprigs out of the pan. Set the thyme aside, and place the chicken and brussels sprouts on the desired serving dish.
- Add maple syrup to the sauce and bring to a high simmer over medium-high heat. Whisk frequently until the sauce has become thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, this should take around 5-8 minutes. Taste and adjust mustard, sea salt, and black pepper based on desired taste.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken. Garnish with bacon and thyme and serve warm!
Nutrition
Made in partnership with my friends at Farmer Focus. All thoughts and opinions are always 100% my own! I love the integrity of their products and think you’ll love them too. Thank you for continuing to support LCK and the brands I work with!
Looks yummy! However, I wouldn’t label this as a Hanukkah dish since it has bacon. Might try with chicken thighs as it’s hard to find bone-in chicken lately.
It’s optional. Omit the bacon 🙂
This was fantastic! Subbed the Brussels for baby potatoes, and leeks for fennel (both due to IBS) but kept method exact! At the end, after the sauce reduced I took chicken off the bone and put it and everything else back in pot, mixed and served it over rice, WOW! Juicy and delicious!!
Would not make again, the recipe looked good but the flavor is odd and lacking. Followed the recipe exactly, and it was very bland.
I made this for dinner last night and I’m already looking forward to the leftovers! I used boneless thighs and chicken breasts because I already had them, and it still turned out wonderful. The flavors in this recipe are perfect!
I want to make this tomorrow but only have skinless boneless breast with no time to grocery shop. Think it would still work well?
Yes, but you’ll have to watch the cooking time to make sure the chicken doesn’t overcook. I recommend checking it with an instant-read thermometer!
Delicious! I grew up with apple cider (and apple cider donuts!) every fall. My fiance grew up where it wasn’t a thing (sad, I know) so I’ve been trying to incorporate recipes for him to try. He’s not usually a fan of meals with sweet sauces and LOVED this. It came out so good. I did add a bit more mustard and it’s perfect. Thank you!
This is a very good recipe. I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs which worked out fine. The flavors of the cinnamon and Dijon meld well with the apple cider to create delightful flavors. Thank you for all the delicious recipes you share with us!
This was so delicious! I have made it a few times now and it was amazing each time. Once I forgot leeks and used regular sweet onion instead and it was still good. One time I only had boneless thighs and they still came out delicious. It looks seriously impressive too if you serve it to company.
This looks amazing. But is everyone really braising bone in chicken in 15 minutes? normally it would take 45 or so.
Any substitute for maple syrup to make it whole 30 compliant?
this looks amazing! do you think you could make it in an instant pot?
So yummy! 🙂 It would probably need some major adapting for the IP!
This is outstanding! I made this a couple of weeks ago and it is truly something you could make for company. But we are so fancy in my house (not) …my daughter gobbled this up. Even the sprouts: WIN!