This Old-School Smothered Chicken Is Pure Comfort Food

You know, some of the best meals are the simplest. Today's old-school smothered chicken is simmered in a rich onion gravy until it's tender, comforting and full of flavor. Serve it over mashed potatoes, rice or a slice of bread and you got a meal the whole family will love. So let's get cooking. So the first thing I got here guys is about eight boneless skinless chicken thighs. And we'll make our seasoning for the thighs by adding about two tablespoons of all-purpose flour to a bowl. Follow that up with about a teaspoon of salt. Another good heaping teaspoon of what I love so much, ground black pepper. Then a tsp of the old garlic powder. Follow that with another teaspoon of onion powder. A teaspoon of smoked paprika and get smoked if you can, it's much better. Then of course grab up the old spoon and give this a mix around. And man oh man you can smell that seasoning right in there now. It's beginning to smell good already. After that what we're going to do here my friends is just lightly coat that seasoning with our mixture here. So we're not going to dredge this, you're just going to lightly coat it. Then of course give things a flip over and I'll do the same thing for the other side. And to make things really professional, make sure they're well coated, I'm just going to give this a little massage in here with my hands. Chickens love massages. Now I should mention here you don't have to use boneless skinless thighs, you can use bone-in thighs or you could even use chicken breasts, but I find breast dry a little too easy. I really like the thighs. Alrighty then, next up I've got the old pan heated up over medium-high heat. I'm going to go in with two tablespoons, I should say maybe about a tablespoon, of unsalted butter. And we'll just kind of swirl this around and let it melt down a little bit. And then follow that up with maybe a tablespoon or two of olive oil. In we go with that chicken. You gotta love frying chicken. Something comforting about it, I don't know what it is. And we're just going to go ahead and fry this up on both sides until we get a nice sear on it. While that chicken is searing up, my friends, I'm going to grab up two onions and I'm just going to slice this relatively thin so we can go ahead and just bring this up because we're making a nice, beautiful onion gravy. After about three or four minutes here, we're just going to check them. Look at this, guys, we've got a nice sear on them here. And that's just because of that flour mixture we added over the top. And these don't have to be cooked all the way through because they are going to simmer in that gravy for a while. I just love this sear. Alright, my friends, we are about 85-90% done here. I can just tell by the bounce back on the chicken. So what I'm going to do is just set these aside on a plate. And we'll just let these guys rest for a few minutes until we continue on with the onions. So what we're going to do now, guys, in the same pan, we're just going to bring in those onions. And we're still over medium-high heat here. Now what I've done here is reduce the heat to medium-low. And we're going to cook these up for about 10 or 15 minutes just until they're cooked through. But they still want to maintain their integrity. You don't want them completely caramelized. So I'll show you what they look like in a few minutes here. Okay, we're about 10 minutes here over medium-low heat. And this is kind of the way we want them here, just like this, guys, because you want them nice. You still want those rings and you want them sitting on top of the chicken so they look nice and beautiful and maintain their case. You don't want them extremely caramelized. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to push these over to one side of the pan. And we'll add in two tablespoons of unsalted butter again. Just kind of let this melt down a little bit. And notice I'm using the same pan because you want those wonderful flavors from the chicken in there. So we're just going to kind of decaramelize the pan or deglaze the pan, I should say. And now I'm going to throw in a couple of tablespoons of flour. We'll just stir this around until a bit of a roux forms here. And then I'm going to slowly pour in two cups of chicken stock. While I continue to stir around there, and we should, in theory, get a beautiful gravy. I'm going to go ahead and mix those onions in with it. Just look at this, guys. Now we'll season things up with about half a teaspoon, three quarters of a teaspoon of thyme, a little bit of the old pepper, and of course, one of my all-time favorites, a couple of teaspoons, even up to a tablespoon of the good old Worcester sauce. That just adds that nice depth of flavor. And about half a teaspoon of poultry seasoning. Now we'll just give this a stir around. And of course, you can add as much seasoning as you like, but this is about perfect for me. Just look at this gravy, it's coming along beautifully. And you guessed it, guys, we are going to ever so gently, or not so gently, add that chicken back in. And of course, don't forget that those juices from where the chicken was resting, or when the chicken was resting. Now grab up the old spoon and just spoon that wonderful gravy. And look at those onions over top of that chicken. Now what I'm going to do here is I'm going to and just let this simmer away for about 10 or 15 minutes. After about 15 minutes or so here, guys, just look at this. Everything is done beautifully. And that gravy to me is just about perfect. Don't be telling me this is too thin because they aren't thin. And what did I tell you? It's ever so simple. So we are pretty much done here, but don't be going away yet because we have some tips and some tasting to do. So of course, what I'm going to do is I'm going to grab some chopped parsley fresh from the garden. And we're just going to kind of garnish this up, give that greenish effect. So all the people you serve this to say, wow, how did you ever make this? And there you have it, guys. Our simple, and I mean simple, chicken and gravy that is so delicious, old school, you are going to love it. Everybody's going to love it. Okie dokie. Let's cut into this, maybe from this side and see what we have. That chicken feels really tender to me. Get some gravy on there. Oh my goodness. Just look at this. That chicken looks juicy and gravy and everything else. Wow. All right. You ready? Let's give her a taste. I'm not lying to you. The first thing that hits me is that gravy. It is fantastic. It's got a little bit of a tang to it, but it's rich. It's absolutely silky and beautiful. That is perhaps the best gravy I've ever had. The chicken is perfectly done. It's nice and juicy. You are going to love this. It's so simple, easy and old school. Make it up, guys. And if you do, leave us a comment. Love to read them. Most of all, like and subscribe helps the channel out. Thanks so much for watching and we will see you in the next video. And of course, I'm going to have more even just gravy.