Recipe: Making a speedy dinner out of a slow-braised bird

We don't often think of braising as a weeknight-friendly approach to dinner. After all, anything that cooks low and slow would seem to be no go for a workday.

But I've found just the opposite. Turns out a hands-off braise is perfect for those evenings when I can't be in the kitchen because I'm too busy shuttling my son back and forth to karate or watching him at a cross-country meet or — on those especially fun evenings — both.

My ideal meal works something like this: I spend 10 or so minutes prepping some sort of meaty something-or-other in a large Dutch oven. This usually involves browning it for a few minutes. Then I dump in an ample amount of flavorful liquid (wine or broth), cover the pan and pop it in a low-heat oven for a couple hours. By the time we get home, it's ready to eat.

The real beauty of this approach is that it is adjustable to whatever we have going on. If we won't be gone long, I do the oven-braise at a higher temperature so the meat cooks more quickly. If we have multiple commitments, I drop the heat way down, add a little extra liquid and forget about it for several hours.

So here's a recipe for braised chicken that gets a ton of flavor by cooking in Madeira, a fortified wine from Portugal. I like to use split breasts, which are large and meaty and sport extra flavor from cooking with the bone and skin intact. You also could use chicken thighs.