My, Saturday, you are beautiful. To my Basque Style Chicken, you’re beautiful, too.
The day has proven thus far to be quite productive, and it is a truth universally acknowledge that, should that be the case, there will inevitably be some sort of snag to mess it up just a little bit.
In my case, a cranky garbage disposal.
Despite the slow drain that has been going on since Thursday eve, I managed to get most of this week’s cooking done this morning. However, the slow drain has led to a situation where the sink is, I’m pretty sure, not draining at all. Excellent, of course, where one needs use of the kitchen for most of the day.
No bother since I’ve had Backstreet serenading me all day long. It’s like, my own personal concert. #BackstreetsBack.
But enough about my domestic issues and my questionable taste in music. Let’s talk this chicken.
To remind, the Basque region of Spain, located in the northern parts, has a very distinct culture and culinary fingerprint when compared to the rest of the country.
I know I just gave you Spain, but I can’t help it. I just love the food there so much. Orange agrees, and we both just really need to get our patutes over there to gorge ourselves senseless with tapas (and this is making a pretty strong case). Until then, we must suffice to cook all the foods at home. Actually, I’ve got another Spanish dish coming at you later this week. I’m not really sorry about and I suspect you really won’t be either.
This dish comes at you adapted from the book Around the World in 80 Dishes. It’s a good find and this dish is a good dish. It’s pretty much your standard one pot and let it simmer chicken dish. Good times when you don’t really want to be standing over the stove, no matter what is playing in the background.
Served traditional with roasted potatoes (or, in my case, leftover grits), it’s easy, fresh and mighty tasty.
Written while the garbage disposal does not drain.
Basque-Style Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 TB olive oil
- 1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces, keeping bones in and skin on
- 2 TB smoked Spanish paprika
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 onions, sliced
- 2 red peppers, deseeded and sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup Spanish dry white wine
- 1/4 cup cognac
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- Rice, potatoes or polenta, to serve
Directions
- Step 1 Heat the oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium high heat. Sprinkle the chicken pieces with salt, pepper and paprika, and coat well.
- Step 2 Put them in the hot pain and cook for about 8 minutes total, 4 minutes per side until nicely seared on all sides. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
- Step 3 To the hot pan, add the onions and peppers and stir until soft. Stir in the garlic and stock and make sure to scrape all the bits off of the bottom of the pan. Add the tomatoes, wine and cognac and add all the dark meat chicken back to the pan.
- Step 4 Loosely cover and simmer over low heat about 20 minutes. Add the white meat back and continue cooking another 15, until all the chicken is cooked through. Add the lemon and parsley and serve over wild rice, potatoes or polenta.
Awesome dish! So tasty and did not take long at all. Perfect weeknight meal 🙂
Thank you dear!