Oyster Sauce Chicken Thighs with Pan Sauce

Crisp-skinned chicken thighs started in a cold pan, which is the least glamorous and most reliable route to skin that shatters. The oyster sauce goes on at the end rather than the start so the sugars glaze instead of burn, and the fond left behind builds a butter-mounted pan sauce in the same skillet. Charred, braised cabbage and blistered broccoli round it into a full plate, and each component holds well enough that you can stagger the cooking rather than run three pans at once.

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 3 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.