Chicken with Artichokes and Mushrooms

Ann Fisher April 14, 2020

What’s for supper? A wonderful dish of chicken with artichokes and mushrooms in a sauce flavored with sherry and rosemary.

Fresh artichokes? Wonderful, but a lot of work. Photograph, iStock Photos.

How long this takes to cook depends on whether you use fresh artichokes — which are time consuming to deal with, and kind of a pain in the ass. You can certainly go in the easier direction and use canned or frozen artichoke hearts. There are enough other savory flavors in the dish to cover any tinned taste — I’ve made the dish this way, and it works well.

Canned artichokes. Nothing beats fresh, but they are quick to prepare and will work. Photograph, iStock Photos.

For this dish, I had three fresh artichokes on hand, so that’s what I used. I really needed four artichokes for this dish, because they weren’t that big, but I made do with what I had. In this day of COVID shopping, you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit 🙂 .

I love fresh artichokes, but if you go that direction, it takes about 45 minutes longer to make this dish — making it a labor of love. Of course, in these days of sheltering in place and social distancing, time is one thing I have plenty of (big roll of my eyes).

I’ve written two versions of the recipe below, I’ve included instructions with preparation time depending on which direction you choose.

Chicken with Artichokes and Mushrooms

This version of the recipe uses fresh artichokes.

4 artichokes, (cooked, cleaned, and bottoms roughly chopped)
2 tbsp. salt, (for boiling in the artichoke water)
4 chicken thighs, on the bone with skin
1.5 cups yellow onion, chopped
1/4 lb mushrooms (white or bellas), (sliced)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. fresh rosemary, finely chopped, (or 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary)
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup chicken broth
2 lemons
1/4 cup dry sherry
salt and pepper, (to taste)
3 dashes Tabasco sauce, (optional)

Prep Work

Use a sharp knife and cut the top third of the artichoke off. Use kitchen scissors to trim any lower sharp ends off. Place artichokes in a large bowl of cool water, soak briefly and rinse well.
Fill a large pot (big enough to hold all of the artichokes) with water. Add 2 tbsp. of salt. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon into the water (to keep artichokes from oxidizing and turning brown). Bring water to a rolling boil.
Once the water is boiling, place artichokes in water. Drop temperature just slightly – you want to retain a boil. Cook artichokes 18 minutes. Once cooked, removed from water and place in a colander to drain.
Allow artichokes to sit until cool enough to handle. While chokes are cooling, chop onions, rosemary, mince garlic, and slice mushrooms.
Pat the chicken dry, and season with paprika, salt, and pepper.
When artichokes are cool enough, remove all leaves, and set aside. Then using a spoon, remove the furry choke stuff, rinse well, and roughly chop.
If desired, you can also scrape additional artichoke meat from the bottom of the leaves. Doing this typically adds approximately one additional bottom's worth of artichoke — but it is a pain in the neck to do.

Cooking the main dish

Preheat the oven to 375°.
Put olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When very hot, add chicken thighs, skin side down, and cook 3 minutes or until lightly brown.. Turn chicken over, cook chicken for an additional 3 minutes. Then move chicken to a oven safe dish and set aside.
Put butter, onions, and mushrooms into the skillet with the chicken drippings, drop the heat to medium and cook until onions are soft — about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 additional minute. Lightly salt and pepper the onion/mushroom mixture.
Scatter the flour over the onion/mushroom mixture and continue cooking for about 2 minutes.
Add chopped artichoke, chicken broth, sherry, rosemary, and the juice of 1 lemon to the skillet and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Taste your sauce and adjust salt and pepper seasoning. Add 2 -3 dashes of Tabasco sauce, if desired.
Pour sauce over the chicken, put in the oven and cook for 35 minutes, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked and tender.

The faster version is below. If you use frozen artichoke hearts it will take at least 30 minutes to defrost them.

Chicken with Artichokes and Mushrooms.

This version of the recipe uses canned or frozen artichoke hearts.

1 16 oz. can of artichoke hearts, (or use frozen — you'll need 2 packages of frozen artichoke hearts, since they are typically about 9 oz. each.)
4 chicken thighs, on the bone with skin
1.5 cups yellow onion, (chopped)
1/4 lb mushrooms (white or bellas), (sliced)
1 clove garlic, (minced)
1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped, (or 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary)
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup chicken broth
2 lemons
1/4 cup dry sherry
salt and pepper, (to taste.)
3 dashes Tabasco sauce, (if desired)

Prep Work

If you are using canned artichokes, drain and rinse them thoroughly. Cut them each in half, place in a small bowl, and squeeze half a lemon over them — toss in the juice (helps take some of the canned taste away).
If you are using frozen artichokes defrost completely (could take 30 minutes or longer), and then lightly squeeze with a paper towel to remove liquid. Cut in half, put in bowl and squeeze some lemon juice of then and toss gently.
Chop onions, rosemary, mince garlic, and slice mushrooms. Pat the chicken dry, and season with paprika, salt, and pepper.

Cooking

Preheat the oven to 375°.
Put olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When very hot, add chicken thighs, skin side down, and cook 3 minutes or until lightly brown. Turn chicken over, cook chicken for an additional 3 minutes. Then move chicken to an oven safe dish and set aside.
Put butter, onions, and mushrooms into the skillet with the chicken drippings, drop the heat to medium and cook until onions are soft — about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 additional minute. Lightly salt and pepper the onion/mushroom mixture.
Scatter the flour over the onion/mushroom mixture and continue cooking for about 2 minutes.
Add artichoke hearts, chicken broth, sherry, rosemary, and the juice of 1 lemon to the skillet and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Taste your sauce and adjust salt and pepper seasoning. Add 2 – 3 dashes of Tabasco sauce if desired.
Pour sauce over the chicken, put in the oven and cook for 35 minutes, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked and tender.