"chicken thighs" news and stories

• St. Patrick's Day is over, but Irish comfort food transcends the holiday.
• Speaking of the Irish, let's hear it for potatoes.
• Pig ears, anyone?...Anyone?
• Okay, then, how about chicken thighs? That's more like it.

Eating a peach that's tree-ripened and so full of life that the juice dribbles down your chin when you take a bite is to know what fresh tastes like. But sometimes, says Melissa Clark, in this New York Times story, unripe peaches are where it's at. For this dish, photographed by Andrew Scrivani, Clark used the hardest peaches she could find, so they would stand up to roasting with chicken thighs, fragrant basil, ginger, garlic, and wine. It worked, and the dish, a classic combination of poultry and fruit, produced plenty of pan juices for sopping up with bread. (For Melissa's recipe, click here.)

The peach as we know it has, through selective breeding, been made firm enough to travel great distances. Yet flavor is often lost along the way. California farmer David Mas Masumoto, who grows some of the country's best organic peaches and nectarines, writes beautifully in his book 'Epitaph for a Peach' about what it takes to grow and nurture the tender fruit, and about life, through good times and hard times, on his family's farm.

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By far, the most common way I prepare chicken these days is by roasting thighs. I went through a phase where I was doing whole chickens, and there's definitely something satisfying about pulling a whole bird from the oven. But for convenience, cost and flavor, I think that thighs are the way to go. I know some of you may be into the whole boneless, skinless breast thing, but I just find them dry and flavorless. Crisp skin, flecked with coarse salt, cracked pepper and rosemary is where it's at.

I love the flavor of coq au vin, but sometimes I don't want to spend hours and hours waiting for it to cook. Being a resourceful cook, I took a classic coq au vin recipe and adapted it to make it quicker and much easier.  It's not as rich as the original recipe, but it still hits the spot. I like to serve it with roasted root vegetables and a butter lettuce salad.