Cheese and Pears

Chicken Recipes: Lemon Chicken with Saffron

Posted on May 18, 2009 05:40:59 PM

There’s a new cookbook on the shelf: Gennaro’s Italian Year , by Gennaro Contaldo (click here if you’re reading from Europe), Jamie Oliver’s mentor. The list of recipes I’d like to try is done already, and as I hadn’t used saffron for a long time, I started with this chicken recipe. For two people:

• 2 chicken breasts or thighs
• 2 carrots
• 1 stick of celery
• 85g (3 oz) peas
• ½ onion
• salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil
• a few strands of saffron
• juice of 1 lemon
• ½ glass of white whine

In a bowl mix together the lemon juice, the wine, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Put the chicken in a snug container, rub the salt and pepper and pour the marinade all over. Leave the chicken in the fridge for as long as you can up to 12 hours to marinade.

Take the chicken out of the fridge and let it reach room temperature. In a frying pan, or a oven proof dish heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and the chopped onion and let it sweat on a low heat until lucid and soft (7-10 minutes).

In the meantime preheat the oven at 180° C (350°F).

When the sauté is ready, add the chopped carrots, the peas and the celery, turn up the heat and add the wine, let it evaporate and turn down the heat again. When the vegetables are a a bit tender, set aside.

Re-heat the remaining oil and add the chicken pieces, and fry them on both sides until light brown. Now put everything together (starting from the bottom): vegetables, chicken and marinade and put it in the oven for about 45-60  minutes.

Ten minutes before it’s ready, dissolve the saffron in some hot water and pour it on the chicken.

Fastes chicken recipe ever.

Easy Chicken Recipes: Hunter’s chicken (pollo alla cacciatora)

Posted on Feb 19, 2009 06:22:09 AM

Here is one of my favorite chicken recipes and a classic of Italian food: Hunter’s chicken (pollo alla cacciatora)

btw, bright luvely picture isn’t it? Could it be more out of focus?

I don’t want to sound harsh, but chicken and turkey meats are fairly tasteless. The good thing about it though, is that you need to find good recipes to make them sexy. This Jamie Oliver’s version from Jamie’s Italy (reading from Europe? click here) is one of them: hunter’s chicken, a popular Tuscan chicken recipe, where King and Queen are wine and olives,

To get the best out of this chicken recipe, start marinating it the day before. If the sauce is not too liquid it’s great with pasta too.

I followed Jamie’s recipe almost literally (see notes below). These are the ingredients for three people:

• 1kg (2 ½ lb) of chicken pieces
• salt and pepper
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 sprig of rosemary
• 2 cloves of garlic
• red wine to cover the chicken (Chianti in the original recipe)
• flour for dusting
• extra virgin olive oil
• 3 anchovy fillets
• about 10 black olives
• one 400g (1 pound) tin of plum tomatoes

The day before, season the chicken and put it in a bowl with the bay leaves, the rosemary and one crushed clove of garlic. Cover the chicken with the wine and seal the bowl with cling film. Leave it overnight to marinate.

Drain the chicken, setting aside the marinade. Pat it with kitchen paper, and leave it half an hour until it reaches room temperature.

Dust the chicken with flour. Heat a frying pan, add the olive oil and fry the pieces gently until lightly brown. Remove the chicken from the pan and add the sliced clove of garlic and the anchovies. Let it go for another 2-3 minutes, then add the rest: olives, tomatoes, chicken and marinade. Let it simmer for 15 minutes. In the meantime preheat the oven to 180°.

Transfer the chicken to the casserole and leave it there for about 1½ hours, or until the meat is very tender.

Jamie says:

• you need ½ bottle of red wine to cover 2kg of chicken, but it’s not enough, and you know what they say: bottles of wine don’t grow on trees. I’m sure that the hunter’s wife won’t be offended if you mix 2/3 of wine and 1/3 of water
• use an ovenproof pan, which I don’t have yet
• bring the chicken to the boil and put it in the oven straightaway covered with a lid or tinfoil. But there’s a lot of liquid marinade and I prefer to let it coagulate, so I left it simmer for 15 minutes and put it in the oven without covering it. For the same reason, next time I’ll try with a free-range chicken, as it’s supposed to release less water

As I said, one of my favorite chicken recipes. Feel free to look at the rest of my meat recipes