Oyster Sauce Chicken Thighs with Pan Sauce

This is crisp-skinned chicken thighs started in a cold pan. It's the least glamorous route to skin that shatters, and the most reliable. The oyster sauce goes on at the end, not the start, so its sugars glaze instead of burn.

The fond the chicken leaves behind becomes a pan sauce, finished with butter in the same pan. Charred, braised cabbage and blistered broccoli make it a full plate. Each part holds well, so you can stagger the cooking and avoid running three pans at once.

Most of the timing comes down to letting the chicken do its thing. Get it into the pan first and everything else fits around it.

A few things to know before you start

• Chicken: Skin-on thighs, bone-in if you can get them. They render more slowly and stay juicier, though boneless works if you cut the oven stage to 6-8 minutes.
• Pan: Stainless or carbon steel, never non-stick. The entire pan sauce is built from what the chicken leaves behind, and non-stick is designed to stop that happening.
• Oyster sauce: Brands vary hugely in salt and sweetness. Taste yours first and hold off seasoning the sauce until the butter is in.
• Crème fraîche: Full fat only. Low-fat versions split when you blend them with the miso, and sour cream will do at a push if you loosen it slightly.
• Vermouth: Dry white wine or dry sherry both work. Whatever you use, reduce it until it's genuinely jammy before the stock goes near it.

Serves 2 | Prep 20 mins | Cook 50 mins | Total 1 hr 10 mins (the chicken rests while the sauce cooks)