Honey-Wine Braised Chicken Thighs with Greens

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking exactly what I was thinking when I saw this recipe in Cooking Light. “Meh, at least it’s allergen-free. And it’ll taste good enough to get me through a meal or two.” Oh friends, you are wrong.

This recipe is amazing. It has a wonderful balance of salty and sweet and has a light, Asian flavor that’s perfect for summer. Everyone in the family loves this dish. The kids eat it over spaghetti with a Thai peanut sauce. I eat it over a bowl of brown rice. Everyone is happy.

I tried really, really hard to find Shaoxing wine. I like exploring new and authentic ingredients, especially Asian ones. I visited three liquor stores and an Asian store and still came up empty handed. I used the dry sherry and it was still terrific.

The original recipe calls for three tablespoons oyster sauce, which by its very definition is not allergen-friendly. And then if you read the label–well, it just makes me dizzy thinking of all the allergens in there. So I used 1 tablespoon of soy-less sauce and 2 tablespoons of gluten free fish sauce. I also like to use a good-quality honey in this recipe. You really can taste the difference.

Feel free to substitute whatever greens your prefer/have in the garden/can get your hands on. I used kale, because we kind of like kale. Chard would be good, so would collards. If you’re not really a fan of greens you could use spinach, which doesn’t taste quite as “green” as the rest of them. Whatever you use, use fresh, not frozen. And cut out the central stem, which tends to be thick and tough and fibrous, and will make your kids spit it onto their plates and say “Yuck! I hate green things!” Much easier to just cut it out. To do this, take your paring knife down one side of the stem, then down the other side. Tug it gently and–voila!–no yucky green things to spit out at the table.