Fennel is amazing. I had eaten it, but never cooked with it until today. What intrigues me the most, anise flavor aside, is how many ways it can be prepared. The whole plant can be put to use: the root can be roasted or eaten raw, fronds for salads or as garnish, and the seeds can be crushed, ground, or used whole. Even the fibrous stalk can be cooked with other foods to impart its flavor.

Here’s what I did with it.

prep time: 10-15 minutes
active cooking time: 6 minutes
passive cooking time: 35-40 minutes

ingredients:

  • 1 chicken thigh, with skin (I bought a whole, natural, free-range bird and broke it down myself)
  • 1 large fennel plant, rinsed and dried. We’ll only use one stalk, so just chop off a stalk through the root. The root should be about the size of half a medium onion.
  • 1 beet, leaves and all, rinsed and dried
  • olive oil
  • kosher salt
  • freshly ground pepper
  • white wine – I used a Pinot gris

Pan Seared Chicken Braised with Fennel

I first set my oven to 375°F before getting to work. In a medium pan I heated some olive oil in a pan while julienning the stalk of the fennel. I added some strips to the oil to flavor it and added the chicken thigh, searing on some color and rendering off some of the skin fat. I then transferred the chicken to a glass pan. Metal would probably be better. Oh well. I added some of the fennel fronds, bit of wine, and braised for about 35 minutes. When braising, you can use almost anything acidic, as long as the flavors work together. Lemon juice, wine, tomatoes, beer, stock – the main idea is to impart some flavor in a tougher bit of meat and keep it moist, which will also assist in breaking down the tissue.

While the chicken was cooking, I sliced the fennel bulb and fronds as well as the beet root into crescents. I mixed everything together with my hands, drizzled some olive oil and seasoned lightly with salt and pepper. Chop the veg as rough or fine as you like. I like big chunks.

Fennel and Beet Salad

I served the chicken with some store bought pasta. That will soon be a thing of the past. Enjoy.