Southern Braised Chicken is the newest addition to your comfort food repertoire. It’s hearty and full of cozy flavors. With just a few humble ingredients and a few minutes of hands on time, you’ll have a dish the whole family is going to love.
This recipe is easy, delicious, nutritious and budget friendly. Win, win, win, win!
Jason first cooked this recipe for me shortly after we met, saying it was a family classic. His mom had cut the recipe out of a magazine years ago. At first I thought the ingredients sounded like an odd combination, but when I took a bite… who knew such simple flavors could come together so perfectly?!
And the chicken is fall off the bone tender when it’s braised for a while. Like my Mediterranean Braised Chicken and Chicken Provençal, this one just melts in your mouth.
This is one we keep coming back to. It’s especially cozy when the temperatures start to drop. Give it a try, it might become one of your family favorites too!
Ingredients for our Southern Braised Chicken
I am including exact ingredient amounts in the recipe card at the end of this post. Here are the things you’ll need:
- Chicken – We always use bone-in thighs, but leg quarters or a whole cut up chicken would work too.
- Bacon – It makes everything taste better!
- Veggies – Cabbage, carrots and mushrooms.
- Chicken broth – The original recipe from the magazine called for water, along with onion soup mix, but we prefer it with broth.
- Thyme – I am using dried today, but when I have fresh handy I use that. Just double the amount if using fresh.
- Black eyed peas – Canned, because this is meant to be an easy one-pot dinner!
How to make this Southern Braised Chicken recipe
1. Cook bacon: First, fry up your bacon in a braiser or dutch oven, or if you happen to have one, an electric skillet. Once it’s done, remove it to a plate and tear it into medium-sized pieces.
2. Sear chicken: Remove all but about 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease. Add the chicken thighs, skin side down, for about 6-8 minutes, then flip and cook 2-3 more minutes. Remove to a plate.
3. Initial braise: Deglaze the pan with chicken broth, stir in the carrots, mushrooms, thyme and broken up bacon. Nestle the chicken, skin side up, into the mixture. Cover and cook for 30-40 minutes.
4. Finish the dish: Add in the cabbage and black eyed peas. Cover and cook an addition 30-40 minutes, until the chicken is fall-off-the-bone tender (about 185-190°F internal temperature.
Serving Southern Braised Chicken
We almost always have this with biscuits, they go so well with it. It would also go great with some nice crusty bread like my no-knead bread, or even over a pile of rice.
Variations
Play with your veggies. The original recipe from the magazine did not call for mushrooms, but we love the addition. We can see some bell peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green peas or green beans going great. Or, swap the cabbage for some other green, like spinach, kale or turnip greens.
Try different beans. How about cannellini or any other type of white beans?
Use different seasonings. This can really change the flavor of the dish. Try rosemary or Italian seasoning. Or, give it a bit of kick with some Creole Seasoning.
Replace the bacon with ham. Equally delicious, but different.
Storing leftovers
This one makes great leftovers. Refrigerate in an airtight container for 3-4 days. Simply reheat on stovetop with a splash of extra water.
You can also freeze it in an airtight container. For best quality, use within 2-3 months.
Give this Southern Braised Chicken with black eyed peas a try this winter. You just may come back to it year round like us! When you try it, please leave a star rating and a comment, I love hearing from you!
Southern Braised Chicken with Black Eyed Peas, on our Gypsy Plate… enjoy!
Try these other Southern recipes!
Grillades and Grits
Smothered Chicken
Brunswick Stew
Southern Collard Greens
Shrimp and Grits
Lowcountry Boil
Swamp Potatoes
Southern Braised Chicken with Black Eyed Peas
Southern Braised Chicken with Black-Eyed Peas is the newest addition to your comfort food repertoire. It's hearty and full of cozy flavors.
Ingredients
- 5 slices of bacon
- 5-6 chicken thighs
- 1 cup chicken stock or broth
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 8oz mushrooms, sliced
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- ½ head small cabbage, chopped
- 2 15oz cans black eyed peas, drained
Instructions
- In a braiser or dutch oven over medium high heat, fry bacon until crisp. Remove it to a plate.
- Remove all but 2 tablespoons of bacon grease. Add chicken to the pot and brown 6-8 minutes skin side down. Flip and cook an additional 3-4 minutes. Remove to a plate.
- Deglaze the pan with chicken broth, stir in the carrots, mushrooms, thyme and broken up bacon. Nestle the chicken, skin side up) into the mixture.
- Cover and cook an hour to an hour and a quarter (see note 1), adding in the cabbage and black eyed peas with about half an hour remaining.
Notes
- Technically, chicken is considered cooked at 165°F, so you could safely eat this meal in less time. However, to get that fall off the bone tender meat that we love, give it at least an hour.
Nutrition Information
Yield 6 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 404Total Fat 21gSaturated Fat 6gUnsaturated Fat 15gCholesterol 174mgSodium 394mgCarbohydrates 18gFiber 6gSugar 4gProtein 39g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Welcome to GypsyPlate! I'm Alpana, former worldwide tour manager and professional caterer, now full time blogger. I love exploring cuisines from around the world, and my recipes have been featured on sites such as MSN, Parade, Brit + Co, CNET and AOL. You can explore my entire collection of sortable recipes in my Recipe Index or learn more about me here.
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I add some honey and bbq sauce add your favorite kind. I used millers honey and kraft original bbq sauce. Let me tell you it was sooo good. I didn’t have mushrooms so my only vegetable was shredded carrots. I used beef broth to cook frozen black eye pea beans. I substitute bone in chicken with boneless bread chicken and fried it. I ate theses delicious sweet black eye pea beans over white rice and chicken on top.