Okay- I'm going to pay for the whole "AlphaChef gets naming rights" thing. We're in Trader Joe's deciding what to make for dinner and AlphaChef grabs another whole chicken, I said "come on, I don't want chicken again", he assures me it'll be good. I said he has to cut it off the bone, cause I don't feel like cutting it up tonight- he puts that in a blog posting (see the one in which he rails against cider) and then creates one of the most amazing chicken dishes I've had in a long time. I eat his food and, this time, my words.
This chicken dish was done in one pot, for Ruth, and made without excess ingredients and spices, hopefully meeting Venu's needs. You'll both have to try it.
Preheat your oven to 350-365 degrees depending on if your oven runs cold. Take a whole chicken, weighing approximately 3.5 lbs, cut into pieces, de-bone if desired. Or you could just buy chicken parts- legs and thighs are best- to make it even easier. Brown the chicken in a deep, dutch oven or oven safe high-sided pan over medium high heat with a small amount of oil. Put the skin side down first, fry for about 2-3 minutes, when you can ease a spatula underneath and it's browned, flip. Once you've done this with all of the chicken, set it aside. Pour and discard the extra chicken fat from the pan.
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| Mid-way through, after baking |
Take 1 1/2 handfuls of baby carrots, 1 small red bell pepper chopped large, about 2 oz prosciutto in 1" strips, 1 medium white onion cut into 1" chunks, 2 handfuls crimini mushrooms cut in half, 3 cloves of garlic, smashed and 6 halves diced sundried tomatoes, place all in pan. Return the chicken to the pan, on top of the vegetables, add one can of drained and rinsed garbanzo beans, add 50/50 dry vermouth and chicken stock, so that chicken is half covered. Sprinkle a tbsp fish sauce, cayenne and black pepper to taste. Push 2 bay leaves into the broth.
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| With spinach, post broiler |
Cook in the oven on the middle rack for 1 hour. Check periodically, about 3 times, if vegetables look too brown, submerse in liquid. After 1 hour, remove from oven, pull chicken pieces out, add 2 handfuls fresh spinach without stems (you''ll see in the picture, we didn't remove the stems, he was too lazy) and mix into vegetables. Put chicken back in, skin side up, on top of the liquid/vegetables, turn off the oven and turn on the broiler (high), cook under the broiler until the chicken is nicely browned. Pull out, remove chicken and vegetables, add 3/4 tbsp butter to the broth, bring liquid to a boil until reduced to half, plate and pour the broth on top.
We paired the chicken with a bottle of red wine we discovered recently at Bar la Grassa (a fabulous place you'll hear more about when we work on our restaurant section).
It's a 2006, Weinert Carrascal, Mendoza. It was about $14, at Zipp's Liquor Store on Franklin and Riverside. A blend of Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Aged for 2 1/2 years in french oak casks. It pairs well with vegetables, steaks, pasta and this chicken dish. We never remember wines we like and actually took a picture of the label at the restaurant, we were so impressed. Our memory was right and we really enjoyed the bottle last night with this dish.
2 comments:
You are eating well.
Our broiler is under the oven, and narrow. We couldn't get a Dutch oven down there. The crispiness of the chicken looks like a delicious component.
Modification suggestion?
Remove the chicken from the dish, put in a pan that will fit under your broiler and let it crisp separate from the other ingredients. You could also make like a creme brulee and use a blowtorch- you can get a small one inexpensively at the hardware store. Finally, you could make like you're roasting marshmallows and take the chicken out with tongs, piece by piece and hold over your stove top flame.
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