Chicken Ragù With Fennel Recipe (2024)

We had this for dinner last night and fed it to our 9 month old, who then slept through the night for the first time in his life. We will now be eating this for dinner every night until he is about 5 or so.

Interesting recipe, but in the interests of fitting in my pants, I think I will skip the butter, noodles, cut the bacon down to one slice and just sprinkle a little parmesan on at the table. Should be able to get enough fats from the chicken and the olive oil.

I made this with a supermarket baked chicken... I followed the recipe (skipping the steps to cook the thighs). Then added my shredded chicken, both breasts and thighs, in step #9. Made for an even quicker preparation time! (I also added a few dollops of sour cream for a richer sauce at the end).

I just made this tonight (almost) as written. I accidentally purchased chicken breast instead of the thighs. The flavor is delicious, the bacon smoky, the fennel and onions are sweet. I am now cooking the meat pies. I painted the crust with a bit of the whole milk and sprinkled with a flake salt and freshly ground pepper. The ragú is wonderful as written (and I suspect a little less dry with thigh meat instead of the breast).

This is perfection. Don’t overdo it on the water, consider letting you milk warm to room temperature to for a smoother integration with the very hot sauce (prevent curdling). Flavor is outstanding. For the post from a year ago referencing ways to cut the fat and fit in your pants, I introduce to 2020 and the giving up on of waistbands.

Looking forward to trying this next weekend. Too late to gather all the ingredients at 4:00PM. Everything seems to be better with bacon and fennel. I'll probably double-up on the fennel.

Made some changes second time around that improved this vastly. Added flour - about a tablespoon after deglazing the pot, and a couple more tablespoons before adding milk. Huge improvement in consistency. Used homemade chicken stock instead of water for braising. This added some richer flavor and some nice silky texture to the sauce. Slowly whisked in milk to improve integration. Flavor was still excellent, and the consistency was finally where it should be - actually creamy instead of runny.

This is in my regular rotation. Wonderful in every way. Don’t change a thing.

Celery? I've often had good luck using it in place of fennel.

Some folks might skip eating this and have kale instead, if their pants a problem, but I'm going to try it mostly as is. We had the last of the week's allowance of bacon at breakfast, but I will season with applewood smoked salt for a bit of that flavor. I have only white meat in the freezer so maybe I'll pop it in the pressure cooker for tenderness. Nice to have a Ragu option that's different from bolognese or tomato heavy sauces. Seems great for a rainy September Sunday dinner.

Definitely will make this again. Velvety indeed. Thighs came in packages of 4, so l cooked 8 and used 2 fennel bulbs and a large onion. I think the remedy for the thin sauce is making sure the thighs fit very snugly. I only needed to add a little water and was left with a modest amount of liquid when the chicken was removed. Even still, I stirred 1/2 Tbsp of potato starch into the milk to tighten the sauce. Additionally l used only 1/2 the bacon and served over freekah to up the smokiness.

I loved this, though I didn’t use the milk. Instead I made it more like a soup—added extra broth and served over homemade ricotta dumplings. Delicious.

10/2/2019 -- Used ~6 oz. pancetta, 1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Sautéed pancetta without oil, browned chicken in rendered fat, then proceeded with recipe as written (but added only enough water to moisten veggies). Did not add butter. Served with pasta and extra grated Parmesan.Liked it much more than any bolognese sauce I've ever made.

I used 3 bulbs of fennel (for a slightly scaled up recipe) and would use more next time. Like others, I added much more thyme and was glad. The description calls this "simplified!" It has 11 steps, says to cook the chicken in oil, water, wine, and milk sequentially, and took over 3 hrs! What does the original look like??? The result was incredible. Everyone had thirds!

From a flavor standpoint, this is wonderful. But as others have noted, as written this comes out too watery. I had to reduce the sauce considerably, and it still ends up leaving a puddle on the plate when served over pasta (even when using the starchy pasta cooking water). I'll definitely make this again, but I'll likely add a little flour to thicken this up a bit. (I'll also reduce the amount of the initial braising liquid - the chicken doesn't need to be almost covered to cook well.)

First time I made it I made sure the thighs fit the pan snugly and the sauce came out perfectly. Second time I made it I did not and there was too much water when I "added water to cover", so to me that's the key. This is an absolutely delicious dish but be warned it takes so much time, so for me it's a special occasion recipe ;)

Omg. What a utterly fantastic, comfy meal! I also used a super market chicken,from an organic health food store roasted with herbs from Provence, I substituted an entire can of coconut milk instead of the regular milk and water. I used an entire package of duck bacon, which I sautéed first, and then added the fennel and onions. Swirled the whole thing around with the thyme then added some salt and pepper and dry Vermouth. Cooked for 10 minutes or so. Poured over cooked rice I had in the fridge.

This is much go-to traveling dish. I have cooked this in B&B's in Venice, Paris, New York, and home in Louisiana. All the ingredients are readily available at the corner market. That said, the difference that local variations in the ingredients make is enormous. European chickens win the taste test hands down. I suggest pulling the skin off the chicken and dusting it with flour before cooking to limit the fat served and thicken the sauce.

Love this recipe and usually follow it to a T; however, this last time, once the chicken was finished cooking, i removed some of the broth with the leeks and onions and gave it a quick pulse in the blender. It produced a velvety creamy sauce and I recommend doing this for those who believe it is too runny but don’t want to add additional thickening agents. I used the nutri-bullet but the emulsion blender would work if trying to lessen the dish load.

I somehow didn’t have Parmesan cheese so I subbed in nutritional yeast. It gave the sauce a yellowish color but my family didn’t care, this was delicious. I served it over chickpea noodles. I didn’t add too much water to the pot; the tops of some of the chicken pieces were sticking out of the water like islands.

Bland and Blander. It is missing an acid somewhere, very time-consuming for the result, will not disappoint the family again with it.

I would brown the chicken before the bacon next time, the fond from the bacon kept the chicken skin from releasing from the pan. I will be making this again, very delicious. I also added a half tsp. of anise seed and pepper flakes.

Really good, really rich. I looked up the original recipe on Bon Appetit and found that it included adding peas, which I think would have been a really nice addition.

I served this over fried polenta and added chunks of Melrose apple when the chicken went in for the braise. The flavors seemed northern Italian to me. Outstanding and comforting.

This was good, but if I prepare it again I'd make two big changes. First, I would not poach the sautéed vegetables and the bacon with the chicken. Doing so washes out the flavor and turns the crispy bacon mushy. Instead, I'd mix the shredded chicken in with the vegetables and finish with the milk, butter, and cheese. Then I'd sprinkle the bacon on top. And second, I'd poach the thighs in chicken stock not water to intensify the flavor.

Why core fennel? It cooks just like the rest.

Made tonight exactly as written. Good, but I agree that the sauce would benefit from thickening, especially if served over pasta. Even with starchy pasta water added, I didn't get a satisfying cling. I also agree with reviewers who found it to be somewhat underwhelming for a 2-hour prep. I like the sour cream idea - or perhaps a bit of lemon or sherry vinegar at the end? Seems like some acid might open up the flavors and add a bit of dimension.

I just wanted to applaud Lisa’s entry.

Can I substitute ground red meat for the chicken?

I did not put the oil in the pan before I added the bacon - there is plenty of bacon fat to cook the bacon until crispy. I also poured off most of the bacon fat but left the crispy, brown bits in the bottom of the pan and then added the olive oil and chicken. The result was delicious and easier for my fat-sensitive family to digest.