Drunken Chicken in Beer and Mustard Sauce

Upon our return home from foreign parts, I discovered some random bottles of beer left in my downstairs fridge by my son and his friends who took over our house for Shabbat whilst we were away. I can nearly always count on Netanel for extra bottles of beer left in the house and also can count on him swiping cans of baked beans from me. (All of my kids have done this when they get relatively newly married. I call it shopping in Ema’s (mom’s) pantry. I have yet to understand his baked bean obsession but there you go). In any case, it led to me preparing this chicken dish (a coupla times) and in fact serving it to Netanel and Ayelet when they came over for Shabbat a few weeks later. I have received the seal of approval so it’s all good 🙂 .

What I like about it other than the succulent taste is the incredible ease of preparation in making this dish. Since I try to make sure your prep will come out the same as mine, I make it a few times, trying it covered and uncovered and you’ll be happy to know that leaving it uncovered after bunging it into the oven comes out best. I will remind you that cooking with beer is similar in flavor to cooking with wine – its taste is redolent of a wine-y flavor and I find it both imparts deeper notes to the chicken and makes it very tender. My only caveat here is make sure not to “drown” the chicken in the beer. That is, the beer should only come half of the way up the chicken and no more or the tops will not brown and you’ll miss out on the proper consistency. So, even if you aren’t finishing off the entire bottle of beer, save it for other cooking (you don’t care if it’s flat) or drink it up and start cooking in a good mood!

So preheat the oven to 375 F/190 C and start with your ingredients.

Gather them and then, slather the mustard, brown sugar, onion powder and salt and pepper onto the skin-on bone-in chicken thighs.

Smush it all about like finger painting on the chicken, like so:

Then carefully pour the beer on the edges of the chicken (on both sides so it comes to an even height) halfway up, not more. Remember, even if you have extra in the beer bottle, do not give in to the temptation to use it all. I had about 1/4 cup left over and capped it to use another time.

Place in hot oven and roast for 1 hour and 20 minutes or till tops are beautifully browned and chicken is cooked through. Serve with sauce spooned on top. I’ve served this with both mashed potatoes and rice.

Drunken Chicken in Beer and Mustard Sauce

2 tablespoons deli/brown mustard or Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon onion powder
Salt to sprinkle
Pepper to sprinkle
1 cup beer, approximately (I used 3/4 of a small bottle of beer 335 ml or about 11 ounces)
6-7 skin-on bone-in chicken thighs, cleaned

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375F/190 C.
Take a deep pan to hold the chicken and the sauce and take the mustard and the brown sugar and rub it in to the top of the chicken. Sprinkle the salt, pepper and onion powder over that coating and rub in, slathering all over the tops of the chicken. Carefully pour the beer around the edges of the chicken not on top of the coating -do not cover the chicken with the beer- you want the coating to remain on top, it should come up about half of the way on the chicken. Bake the chicken uncovered for about one hour and twenty minutes or till tops are golden brown and chicken is fully cooked and tender.