Braised Chicken With Smoked Ham, Chestnuts, and Ginger

I only made one change to this which was to used foraged hen of the woods mushrooms instead of dried shiitakes. It was delicious!

• jfain

• Columbus, ohio

• 2/8/2016

I'm an experienced cook who's successfully made dozens of Epicurious recipes and loved them... but this one was disappointing. I forgot the ham, which may have somewhat impacted the flavor.... but otherwise followed the recipe as is and found this too bland and subtle. Don't think I will make this again :-(

• delonestar

• Austin, TX

• 9/17/2014

I loved this recipe. It reminds me of traditional chinese chicken and chesnuts, but with an almost french preparation. I used flour instead of corn starch to thicken. You can find bags of roasted chestnuts for about $1.29 at your local chinese/Korean marts. I'd recommend the national chain H-mart for these kind of provisions.

• sidax

• Chicago

• 12/26/2011

Well I hope the recipe is as entertaining as the reviews. Note i didn't fork it as i have not yet made it. But it does remind me a braised duck dish that I love at a Vietnamese restaurant in town! So i am sure it will great!

• Anonymous

• STL, MO

• 7/26/2011

I have made this dish several times, always with the Olorosa sherry option, and I've had foodie guests tell me that it's the best chicken they're ever eaten. The real chestnuts are a must-- water chestnuts may have the same name, but they aren't related.

• Anonymous

• berkeley, ca

• 7/27/2010

This is tasty. However, it is too much work for the results. i've been making a family chicken recipe that tastes very similar, with half of the work. Anyway, used bonelees skinless thighs. My Chinese mushrooms were awful, so I use some cremini. I much prefer water chestnuts to roasted chestnuts. It gives it a crunch. I added garlic and green onions in the beginning. Towards the end I added red pepper (crushed and whole), thinly sliced napa cabbage, , and some bean sprouts. I really like the smokiness of the prosciutto.

• daniguinha

• los angeles,ca

• 5/5/2010

I made this recipe AS IS for a group dinner last Easter - just ran into it again while tralling for a recipe for next Saturday nights dinner party. It was excellent. A bit fidlee and many traps for the unwary but well worth the effort. Our guests raved. Cheers.

• pansole

• Brisbane, Australia

• 9/24/2009

一个明确的门将!我代替少数诊断接头onally sliced celery and spring onions for the chestnuts (which I added with the ham towards the end of cooking time). In addition, I served the dish over a small portion of cellophane (rice) noodles,more customary in Vietnamese cooking - the amount of noodles shouldn't overwhelm the chicken braise. Used thigh fillets on the bone which I cooked a little longer than recommended in recipe - the meat was tender without falling away from the bone - perfect. Let me make it easier for you: I didn't have time to marinate overnight and realised that the sauce and marinade are virtually the same so I marinated for half an hour or so and retained marinade, added quantities to match sauce portions, chicken broth etc. (and threw in cornstarch at this stage, no need to add separately to thicken). The chicken took in the marinade during the browning process and soaked it up during the slow cooking time. A perfect one-pot dish! Hope this helps ....

• lulufromsydney

• sydney from sydney, australia

• 7/25/2009

Thanks everyone, for the most entertaining comment trail yet. I learn from both the substitutions and the strict adherents, so am happy to see both. The witty trash-talking is a major bonus.

• waterschild

• 10/28/2008

hey folks - did you know it's possible to leave comments without fork-rating the recipe, as i am doing right now? here's the middle ground! people who modify can leave comments, and people who follow the recipe religiously can use the fork-rating system as well! i rarely make the recipe as it is exactly written, but i love leaving comments, so this is what i do. and sometimes i do follow the recipe completely, or with minor subs, ie., NOT vinegar for wine (!!! tmcguff is kinda right, people. vinegar \= wine.), and in that case i will rate it. ALSO you are not required to answer the "would you make it again? yes/no" question either.

• Anonymous

• sf, ca

• 10/26/2008

The last three reviewers are still missing the point. No one said that you shouldn't make substitutions. We are only suggesting that you try and review the original recipe first. It's understandable if you can't get the all the ingredients, but the wine aside, none of this should be hard to find for the average consumer.

• FreshCope

• 10/25/2008

Let's all live and let live. Our taste buds aren't all exactly the same anyway and our idea of what is a three-fork recipe or a four-forker differs anyway, so these ratings are not exact anyway. I'd rather hear people's modifications and how that went. That's what I learn from.

• kary

• Minnesota

• 10/25/2008

有趣的是一个人“总是惊讶”he sees the same thing over and over. Must be a texas thing. With most people, surpise wears off with repetition. Anyway, the good news is this is now the recipe of the day and perhaps more people will make it, or something like it. I understand the epiconformist viewpoint with the altar and all the bowing and scraping. Then there is the curious view that says "ok, we are not all restaurant chefs..." what are we going to do with idea. So having biked for hours around town looking for ingredients that in the end only make slight tweaks to a dish, I start off with what we have at the base commisary and see where that leads. It got me close enough that I'd probably try it again with more of the "correct" ingredients that came down from olympus when god invented this recipe and whispered it in the ear of a lucky chef. Now, that said, the reviewer below did validate that the recipe was better using all the right the stuff as I thought. And yes I do suffer from americanizing things that I cook in america. In fact, I tend to southwest them because I'm in san diego. back in san francisco, I'd have gotten closer to the original thanks to all the asian markets there. Taking the idea that food is more than flavor, this dish features chicken and ginger, two of the healthier products people can put in the mouths. so yeah, recipe of the day, good news. If you are a purist, by all means, make this your life's work. If you are not, tweak and share. and yes, i will also agree that forking a tweaked recipe is bad form and in the future will refrain. toodles.

• reiverat

• 10/24/2008

Phooey! I love tmcguff's review--perfection! But I also appreciate the reveiws of those who substitute ingredients. Not everyone caters, or has the time to hunt down every exotic or authentic ingredient & it's nice to know how reasonable substitutions turn out. I'm glad this is a winner & look forward to making it. Thanks to those who reveiw--following the recipe or with substitutions. Learning from others has helped my cooking tremendously.

• eliselm

• 10/24/2008

Nice! And thanks to Mr. McGuff from Houston for appropriately chastizing so- called reviewers who make so many substitutions that they are no longer reviewing the recipe that was presented in the first place. The idea of a review is that it should help one know how well the recipe works AS IS.

• FreshCope

• 10/24/2008