I decided to follow a recipe nearly to the letter to experience what it is like to cook from a recipe exactly as it appears sans the midas touch. I cooked pollo alla cacciatora by Jaime Oliver. Result? Amazing. My only modifications were the type of olives, type of wine, and cooking times. This recipe anticipates feeding a tribe but I cooked for two so proportion of ingredients is smaller.
I cooked 2 chicken breasts. To begin, marinate chx in 1/2 bottle red wine, clove crushed garlic, 6 bay leaves, 2 rosemary twigs, s&p and a dash of EVOO. Let sit over night - this is VERY important.
The next day, take chx out of marinade and pat dry with paper towel. Dust with flour and quickly brown chicken on all sides. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350.
Now, for the sauce, use same pan you used for frying chx (use an enameled pot like le creuset). Quickly toast 2 crushed and chopped garlic, then add 6 anchovies, 1 c olives (I used sicilian), and 1 large can of plum tomatoes (crush in pan with spoon). Add reserve liquid marinade (remove old bay leaves and rosemary, replace with fresh ones), and bring to slight boil. Add chx.
Cover with lid and cook in oven for 1 hour. Turn off oven and let rest for 20 minutes. Eat hot with beans or side pasta.
It will knock your socks off!
Labels: chicken, olives, tomatoes, wine
Rarely do I make an effort to buy a slab of meat these days, but I couldn't pass up an amazing sale on small organic fryer chickens at Whole Foods. For the price of two chicken breasts, I got the whole chicken. After bringing it home however, I realized that I didn't have a clue what to do with it. I turned to my many cookbooks however, and found a few roasted chicken recipes that I thought would be tasty and fast.
You will need:
- 1 fryer chicken, rinsed thoroughly and patted dry with a paper towel
- 1 bunch of parsley
- 5 ripe tomatoes or a quart of cherry or grape tomatoes
- 1 bunch of carrots
- 1 onion, quartered and taken apart
- 1 whole bulb of garlic, each clove removed, crushed, and skinned
- 1 lemon
- olive oil, salt, pepper
- 2-3 cups white wine
For this recipe, I used my 4 1/2 quart round Le Creuset stoneware that accommodated nicely the chicken and vegetables. You can use whatever roasting pan you have (even a cake pan!), just be sure to line it with foil.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees (C).
Step One: Boil the lemon in a small sauce pot for 5 minutes. Remove the lemon, cut in half, and prick it with a small paring knife. Stuff the chicken cavity with the lemons, some of the whole parsley, and about 4 cloves of garlic.
Step Two: Pour about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of the roasting pan, along with salt, pepper, and any other spices to your liking (i.e. crushed red pepper, bay leaves, thyme, etc). Toss in carrots, onions, tomatoes, garlic, and the rest of the parsley. I recommend chopping up the remaining parsley rather than throwing it in whole.
Step Three: Place the chicken over the vegetables and lightly coat it with olive oil using your hands. Pour in 2 cups of white wine (I used sauvignon blanc).
Step Four: Roast the chicken for about 1 and 1/2 hours. You can pour the remaining cup of white wine after one hour of cooking. To finish off the roasting process, I flipped my bird (hee hee) upside down in the roaster and crisped the bottom for 10 minutes.
Step Five: Remove the chicken and "rest" it for 10 minutes before carving up. I like to remove all the meat from the bones by hand because it is more efficient and surprisingly easy because the chicken is so moist. Just be sure not to burn yourself.
Serve the chicken over anything you'd like. I served the chicken over penne pasta tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper. With the leftovers the next day, I reheated the chicken in a little more wine and olive oil, and served it over French green lentils and steamed spinach. You can also eat it on a sandwich, or with potatoes.
Labels: chicken, roast, wine
