Culinary School Chronicles - Poached Chicken with Sauce d'Archiduc

Classes of late have moved farther away from food theory and more to practical application of the skills we have acquired.  I wonder if anyone but me has actually spent the time reading the manual they gave us....?  Probably only the few die-hards like me and my tablemates who haven't given up on showing up yet!  16 bodies of 24 again today.  Oh well...it means more product for those who show, so whatever.

Today Chef did a demo of Mushroom Rice Pilaf and then we learned to take chicken breast off the front end of the bird, remove the skin and poach it.  Very similar technique to what I did a few weeks back when we poached Rainbow Trout.

We also did a take on Sauce Archiduc which is a derivative sauce that combines the chicken's poaching liquid with a Béchamel sauce (back to Mother sauces again!).  The traditional version popularized by Escoffier is a cream and mushroom sauce, but this version incorporates lemon grass, Thai green curry paste and no mushrooms.  The sauce picks up a subtle hint of flavour from all of these ingredients and gives you that nice little burny tickle at the back of your throat that us capiscum lovers want.

Honestly, until I took this course, I never would have considered poaching to be a viable method of cooking - it seemed too much like boiling or microwaving to me.  But I was wrong.  Between the poached rainbow trout and the poached chicken today, I am a convert.  And it actually is quite a quick cooking method for your "a 1à minute" moments.  I didn't even know I had a là minute moments until I took my course but apparently I do!  And all of these classics still hold up incredibly well at a dinner party.

We also learned about the making of a clouté.  I must admit I love the French cooking terminology we keep learning.  Everything has a name and a defined method.  So classic.  So French!

Anyway a clouté is made by peeling an onion, and cutting it in half.  You then cut a fairly deep insert into the onion and place a bay leaf in the cut.  Then you use a few cloves to pierce the onion and bay leaf to hold them in place. This is my clouté looking back at me from my milk like a little clove studded face.

Basically what we do is place flavouring agents in the bottom of a sauté pan, adding the chicken and poaching liquid, then cook the chicken.  At the same time you make a classic Béchamel sauce and that sauce is added to the strained poaching liquid to create the Sauce Archiduc.  Using the Béchamel is just a different way to thicken an sauce instead of using a Beurre Manie or other method.

What I can say about this dish is that it seemed to be enjoyed by all on Saturday night, including the kids who cleaned their plates.  We served this dish with Mushroom Rice Pilaf and Roasted Asparagus.  Yummy!

Poached Chicken with Sauce d'Archiduc

Poaching liquid:

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (if you can leave the wing on and Supreme it...even better)
1 tablespoon butter
1 shallot, peeled and finely minced
2 tablespoons ginger root, finely minced
1 teaspoon Thai green curry paste
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
2 stalks lemongrass, cut half and bruised

Archiduc Sauce:

Reserved poaching liquid
1 recipe Béchamel sauce (see below\)
1/2 cup heavy cream (35|% cream)
Salt and pepper to taste

Use a sauté pan just large enough to hold the chicken breasts in a single layer.  Butter the inside of the pan and sprinkle with shallots, lemon grass, curry paste and ginger.

Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.  Place them on the pan presentation side up (the prettiest side).  Sprinkle with lemon juice and add just enough stock to cover the chicken.

Cover the chicken with a cartouche ( a buttered piece of parchment paper cut in the shape of the pan - this acts as a paper lid).  Bring the liquid to a low boil over medium heat.  Reduce heat and simmer until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 175 degrees, approximately 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove chicken from pan and place in another dish, cover with foil to keep warm.  Return the poaching liquid to a boil, and reduce by half.  Add the Béchamel sauce.  Return to a simmer and continue to cook for 5 to 7 minutes.  Strain the sauce.

Adjust seasoning and serve over reserved chicken breasts with Mushroom Rice Pilaf and some lovely seasonal vegetables.

Béchamel Sauce


2 cups homo milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter
1 clouté (half an onion with a bayleaf and 2 cloves)

Rinse a small saucepan with cold water.  This will create a coating in the bottom of the pan and reduce the chance of your milk burning on the bottom of the pan.

Add the milk and clouté to the pan and bring to a simmer.  You want to scald the milk but not boil it.  You will know it is scalded because bubbles will form around the side of the pan and if you swish the milk a bit you will get a wisp of steam coming off it.

Melt butter in a separate saucepan.  Add flour and combine well.  Cook for 1 minute but try not to add any colour - we are making a white sauce so we want a blonde roux.  Allow to cool slightly.  For this technique to work the milk and the roux MUST be a different temperatures - moderately warm and hot are ok.

Away from the burner add about 1/4 of the hot milk to the roux.  Mix until smooth.  Add in another 1/4 of the milk and mix.  Keep adding the milk a bit at a time until all milk is taken in by the roux.  Turn the heat to very low and cook for 2-3 minutes.  Take off heat at reserve for use in Archiduc Sauce.

(Incidentally, if you add about 2 cups of Swiss cheese to the Béchamel right now, you get a Mornay sauce which makes an awesome Mac'n'Cheese.)

Culinary School Chronicles - Chicken

Our class today was one of the classes that I thought to myself, if I have to miss a class, this is one of the ones to miss. I bet there is nothing terribly interesting or new to learn about roasting a basic chicken, right?  Well once again I was wrong and I am actually glad I went.

I find that while the content of Culinary I seems limited at times, there is so much that can be learned going back to square one and that I come away every week with new knowledge, better technique or just a better understanding of basic culinary principles.

As usual, Chef was a wealth of information and tips - things learned from years in the food service industry producing massive dinners for 600 diners at a time, so he has lots to share with us. We made a nice simple but perfect roast chicken, Zucchini Provencal and the best damn gravy I have ever turned out. I probably will never go back to my old way of making gravy again, because this was just so delicious, and simple.

Chef also made us a bread dressing to serve with the chicken which I think I will try next time I do a turkey or chicken like this. The new thing for me was that it contained chicken livers. Normally I do not eat anything that contains organs or glands but given where I was, I figured I had to try it. And amazingly, I liked it. I would never have thought that blanched and chopped chicken liver could add such depth to a stuffing, but it did.

Incidentally I learned that the difference between a dressing and a stuffing is just that one goes in a pan and is baked alongside the protein, while the other is, well....stuffed inside the protein. Go figure.

We also learned how to properly truss a chicken and then at the end of class after we were all done, Chef did a demo on how to bone a chicken. That inspired me so much to try myself, that I just got back from Costco with a bag of 3 chickens to experiment on! Once I get good at it, I will maybe even film it for you...photos at a minimum.

As usual, my directions are not as written in my class manual but based on my notes as how Chef told us to execute the dishes instead. The two are not the same. I guess it is the difference between cooking and following a recipe. One is step by step and attentive, while the other is fluid and intuitive.

Roast Chicken with Gravy

1 roasting chicken
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, peeled and diced
2 small cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 carrot, washed and diced
1 rib celery, diced
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup dry white wine

2 cups rich chicken stock or brown stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Wash and dry your chicken well.  Sprinkle generously inside and out with salt and pepper.  Truss with a piece of butcher twine.

Add 1 tablespoon of oil to a roasting pan or large oven safe sauté pan, and heat.  Add chicken, breast side down and brown for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Turn chicken back over and place in preheated oven and cook for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, chop your mirepoix (onion, celery and carrot) if you have not done so.  Remove chicken from oven, lift, and layer the mirepoix under the chicken.  Return to cook for about a further 30 minutes or until the temperature reads 175 degrees.  Remove chicken from the pan and cover with a dish cloth or return to the oven in a different pan to keep warm.

Meanwhile place your roasting pan over medium heat.  You will notice that the pan drippings, comprised of chicken fat and juice will appear cloudy.  Cook the mixture of vegetables and pan drippings over medium heat until the oil clears and the juices evaporate, about 5 minutes.  Once this happens, sprinkle flour over the vegetables and combine.  

Add white wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up any nice brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Slowly add in the stock a bit at at time being sure to incorporate.  The gravy will thicken nicely and should be able to coat the back of a spoon.

Zucchini Provencal

2 large zucchini, cut in large dice

3 plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 onion, peeled and sliced thinly

2 small or 1 large clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Herbs to garnish (parsley, rosemary, thyme and basil)

Directions:

Cut zucchini in half and then dice.  Heat oil in a sauté pan and add onions.  Sauté about 5 minutes until starting to soften.  Add garlic and cook 5 minutes longer.  Add tomato paste and combine.  Add zucchini and cook for about 3 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and herbs and cook for about 2-3 more minutes.  Adjust seasonings and serve immediately.

Looking forward to next week....in addition to Beef Stroganaff we will be learning Spätzle!

Waste Not!! Issue #1: Roasted Chicken

The other day my friend Val visited me in my office and made a suggestion for my blog. She thought it would be great to have ideas to make one base dish, and then come up with ways to morph them into one or two other dishes during the week for easy dinners. Can't say I disagree!

I can't promise to be able to do this every week, but hopefully a couple of times a month I can explore this idea with you all.

All of these recipes are either ones that I make routinely more or less out of my head, or that I might come across in the newspaper or magazine, but it is interesting (and challenging) to combine them all consciously.,  Normally I just walk in the door and open the fridge and see what is there so I can make use of left overs.  Who knows, maybe I'll even get to the point where I have shopping lists for you all to download and print.

All in time.....

The other idea I had was to do posts on how to use up things you have too much of.  Like turning old bread into Panzanella Salad or Ribolitta or bread pudding or crostini, croutons, bread crumbs and more....the idea being to Waste Not!!

In this Waste Not!! menu the base dish is a chicken roasted in a dutch oven with lemons, potatoes and thyme.  The chicken will make its appearances during the week as follows:

Round 1:

Roasted Chicken with Lemon Thyme Gravy served with
Super Easy Smashed Potatoes and
Roasted Asparagus






Round 2:

Tandoori Naan Pizza served with Salad

Naan pizza has become a staple in our house and there are endless variations.  I think the first time I made it, there was some skepticism, but that first bite proved me right and we've all been making it ever since. For those that aren't familiar, Naan is an East-Indian flatbread that is oval in shape and more perfect a base for individual pizzas than pita in my opinion.

Adding Tandoori paste to basic tomato or pizza sauce transforms its flavour, and the cilantro and roasted red peppers add brightness.  For added entertainment value, Justin will teach you how to make the Naan pizzas.  And know that extras heat up and travel very well for a lunch the next day - the boys had them today.

Round 3

Corn Chowder with Chicken and Chorizo with Italian Bread

This soup is a variation of the one Justin and I made a few weeks ago using seafood.  I like the combination of chicken and chorizo.  Hell, I like the combination of chorizo with anything to be honest.

Roasted Chicken with Lemon Thyme Pan Gravy

Well I screwed up.  I forgot to take my chicken out of the freezer on Sunday to defrost so I could cook it for tonight's dinner.  Not being one to worry about such things, I decided to just adjust my approach to roasting my chicken and my cooking time.  Instead of cooking the chicken in an open roaster for about an hour at 400 degrees, I put it in my dutch oven, lid on, with a little bit of olive oil, some herbs, potatoes, onions and preserved lemons, put it in the oven and hoped for the best.

Well I got the best.  After about an hour of cooking time, my chicken was defrosted and up to 60 degrees and well on its way to becoming dinner.  It just goes to show you that most mistakes can be corrected or at least mitigated.  If you didn't mess up like me, the chicken would normally take about an hour.

Roasted Chicken with Lemon Thyme Pan Gravy

1 large roasting chicken
2 tablespoon olive oil
5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tablespoon Herbs de Provence
Salt and pepper to taste
1 preserved lemon, cut into eigths (a regular lemon is ok but you will need more salt)
2 bay leaves
2 lbs mini white potatoes, scrubbed with skin on
1/2 cup chicken stock

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Pour 1 tablespoon olive oil into a large Dutch oven.  Add chicken, rub with additional 1 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with Herbs de Provence, salt and pepper.  Cover chicken with preserved lemon pieces.

If cooking from frozen, place pot in the oven, cover with a tight fitting lid, and cook for approximately 1 hour.  After the 1 hour cooking time, add the chicken stock, potatoes and onions and return to cook for approximately 1 hour, or until an instant read thermometer reads 180 degrees in the thigh joint.

If your chicken is defrosted, place onions and potatoes around the chicken, and add thyme sprigs, bay leaves and chicken stock to Dutch oven, and cook uncovered in the pre-heated oven for approximately 1 hour, or until an instant read thermometer reads 180 degrees in the thigh joint.

Remove chicken and potatoes from pot and allow to cool slightly.  Cut chicken into 8 pieces for serving.  Use the cooked potatoes as they are or go on to make Super Easy Smashed Potaotes and Roasted Asparagus.

Lemon Thyme Pan Gravy

1 cup pan drippings and stock from Dutch oven

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/3 cup cold water

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2-3 sprigs thyme

Roasted lemon pieces from Dutch oven

Pour stock that collects in the bottom of your Dutch oven through a fine sieve to remove onion pieces and lemons, then put into and gravy separator to remove fat.  Wash Dutch oven, and return stock to the pot, leaving the fat layer in the separator.  Add in chicken stock and thyme.  I added back in the onion pieces and lemon pieces for extra flavour.  Bring to a rolling boil.  

In a separate small bowl, whisk cold water and flour together to make a slurry.  This will thicken your gravy.  Be sure to whisk well to ensure there are not lumps.  Whisk slurry into stock and return to a boil.  It is only once the sauce reaches boiling that the thickening power of the flour will be realized.  Cook for 2-3 minutes on medium heat to remove any trace of flour taste.   Serve over chicken.

Corn Chowder with Chicken and Chorizo

Great use for left over chicken and a play on the Seafood Corn Chowder Justin and I made a while back.  I just modified the ingredients and the flavours slightly and came up with this extremely tasty chowder.

Corn Chowder with Chicken and Chorizo

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large carrot, diced
1 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and diced  (or 1 can - I know, I know but it works in a pinch)
2 cups water or chicken stock
1 can creamed corn (it really is the secret to a creamy, rich but low-fat chowder)
1 cup whole milk
1 cup left over chicken, chopped
1 hot (or mild...boooo) smoked Chorizo sausage, diced
1 teaspoon chives, diced
5 drops liquid smoke
3 dashes of your favourite hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oil in a soup-sized pot. Add onion, carrots and celery.  Add salt and pepper to taste and cook until soft but not brown (about 6-8 minutes). Add smoked paprika and thyme and stir.  Add stock or water and bring to a low boil.  Add potatoes and reduce to a simmer until just cooked, about 7 or 8 minutes. Remove about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of potato/celery/carrot and set aside.  Using an immersion blender, purée soup until smooth. Add reserved potato/celeary/carrot mixture back in.  Add the can of creamed corn and milk and and stir to combine.  Add more salt and pepper if needed. Cook for 5 minutes until heated through.  Add chopped left over chicken and Chorizo sausage and combine.  Heat through and serve sprinkled with chopped chives.

Basic Chicken Stock

Any time I roast a chicken I immediately make a stock with the left over carcass. While the stuff out of the carton is convenient and has its place, there is no point in tossing chicken bones in the garbage when they can be turned into the basis for another meal or soup or sauce. You’ve already paid for the chicken, so why not get your money’s worth from it?

When I make a stock I do not bother to get fancy and peel and nicely chop my vegetables. I wash them and rough chop them. I cut the onions in quarters, crush the garlic quickly, and throw them in the pot skins and all. When the stock is ready, all of the vegetables. skins and bones will be strained out as you will not be eating these vegetables – they are to flavour the base stock only.

Sometimes if I don’t think I have a large enough carcass to make a decent quantify of stock, I might add a few chicken drumsticks, or purchase a few packages of chicken backs to add. Chicken backs are extremely inexpensive ($1-$2 a package) as they are generally discarded by the butcher when he cuts up the whole chicken.

Basic Chicken Stock

Ingredients:

3 pounds chicken bones, backs and necks, rinsed (do leave some meat on the carcass)
1 large onion, cut in quarters, skin left on
2 medium sized carrots, unpeeled, cut in large chunks
1 large ribs celery, cut in large chunks
2 bay leaves
8 whole black peppercorns
4 springs fresh thyme, or small pinch of dry
2 cloves garlic, crushed, left whole but crushed
1 tablespoon salt
good grinding of pepper
10 cups cold water

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a large stockpot. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to simmer so that the stock maintains a steady, but very gentle boil. Simmer for minimum 3 hours but 8 if you can. Use a ladle or mesh spoon every so often to skim-off any foamy scum that comes to the surface.

Once stock has cooked, strain through a fine mesh strainer or through several layers of cheese cloth, and discard the bones and vegetables. Cool to room temperature or overnight, so you can remove the layer of yellow fat that will accumulate on the surface.

Freeze stock or use within 2 days.

Justin's Junior Chef Bloggette - Perfect Roasted Chicken

My Mom bought me my first cookbook for Xmas. It is Jamie's Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver. I have to say that Jamie is a really good cook and I like his stuff.  My Mom likes his stuff too and she and my Dad even went to see him live in November.

This chicken recipe is really easy and funny because you stick a lemon up the chicken's butt.  Haha...I said butt.  I also took the pictures this time with my new iPod that I got for my birthday.





Jamie Oliver's Perfect Roast Chicken (with potatoes)

1chicken about 3.5 pounds
1.5 lbs fingerling potatoes
2 medium onions, peeled and cut in half
4 carrots, peeled and cut to serving size
2 stalks celery
1 bulb garlic
olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 lemon, left whole
small bunch of fresh thyme
3 bay leaves
1 cup stock or water (my add)

Take the chicken out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before it goes in the oven.  Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
Jamie says don't peel the vegetables but we peeled the onions and carrots.  Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled (gulp).  Pile all the potatoes, vegetables and garlic in the middle of a large roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil.  Drizzle chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper.  Prick the lemon all over with the tip of a sharp knife (pop the lemon in the microwave, if you have one, for 40 seconds to really bring out the flavour). Put the lemon with the herbs inside the chicken's cavity, along with the herbs.

Put the chicken on top of the vegetables in the roasting pan and put in the preheated oven.  Turn the heat down to 400 degrees, and cook the chicken uncovered for 1 hour 20 minutes*.  Baste the chicken half way through with the water or stock.  When ready, take chickent out and put on a cutting board to rest for 15 minutes.  Cover it with foil and a kitchen towel and put aside while you make your gravy.

To carve your chicken, carefully cut down between the leg and the breast (it should almost just pull off).  Cut through the joint and pull the leg off.  Repeat on the other side, then cut between the thigh and drumstick to you have 4 pieces of dark meat.  Angle the knife along the breast bone and then cut down a little at a time to remove the breast in its entirety from the carcass.  Slice the breast up so that each piece has some skin attached. Then turn the chicken over and use your fingers to get at all the tasty, juicy bits from underneath.  You should be left with a stripped carcass, and a platter full of lovely meat.

Mom's Note:

We inserted our digital cooking thermometer in the chicken and made sure that it read 180 degrees in the middle and at the thigh so we knew it was ready. 

* Letting the chicken set out for 30 minutes seems to be an essential step.  We only left ours out the time it took to prepare the other ingredients, and I found it threw off our cooking time by....well 30 minutes.  So if you don't have time to let the chicken come to room temperature, then I suggest budgeting for an extra 30 minutes cooking time.  Result was by far the juciest roast chicken EVER made.  I

If you aren't sure about how to properly carve a chicken or turkey, especially cutting off the breast, watch this series of photos from the Huffington Post on How to carve a turkey.  I prefer this method to cutting slices off the whole bird.

Easy Overnight Chicken Stock

Basic stocks are one of the easiest and economical things to make, yet so many people only buy cartons, cans or dried package mixes of stock because they say they have no time to make a stock themselves.  Well this stock takes no time and basically no effort, so no excuses. 

Now I am not against the use of cartons, cans and packets of stock base, but to me if you have a chicken or turkey carcass or a ham bone or beef bones, why put them in the green bin when they can easily turn into something delicious.  I always make stock with my carcasses and then freeze the stock because you never know when sniffles and sneezes will require the medicinal properties of a homemade chicken noodle soup.

I made this recipe a few hours after we ate Jamie Oliver’s Perfect Roast Chicken for dinner.  It took me all of 5 minutes to assemble the ingredients and get the stock going.

What you need:

1 slow cooker

1 left over chicken carcass

1 red or white onion, quartered but unpeeled

2 carrots, washed but unpeeled, broken in to a few chunks

2-3 ribs of celery, broken into pieces

3-4 cloves of garlic, smashed but unpeeled

3 bay leaves

2 tsp. sea salt

½ tsp (or more if you like) ground pepper

4 sprigs of herbs of your choosing (parsley, thyme, tarragon and rosemary all work well)

6 cups of cold water or enough to just cover the chicken and other ingredients.

Instructions:

Set slow cooker to low.  Place chicken carcass, skin and any bits lying on the cutting board in the ceramic bowl of the cooker.  You can add any left over pan drippings or if there is just a small amount of gravy, put it in.  Add chopped onions, garlic, carrots, celery and seasonings.  Pour cold water over chicken and accompaniments – ensuring you have just enough to cover the bird.  Put on the lid and then leave to cook overnight.

In the morning, remove the ceramic liner and let cool slightly.  Pour the warm stock through a fine sieve or strainer to remove the large bits of bone, chicken, vegetables.  This will leave you more or less with a clean stock.  Place in a container and refrigerate.

When you come home from work, the fat will have separated from the stock and will appear as a thick yellowish slightly hard layer on top of the stock.  Using a spoon carefully remove the fat layer.  You can be really thrifty and drop the spoonfuls of fat into an ice-cube tray and freeze for future gravies and roux.  Or if that grosses you out, just put it in the green bin.

The super cost-conscious will sift through the chicken bones for scrap meat to use for a soup (if that is your plan) or you can use any left overs from the previous night’s dinner.

You can get fancier and roast the bones,  tie up your herbs and seasoning in a bouquet garni, but if that extra work will deter you, then why bother!  If you don’t have a chicken carcass lying around, I’d suggest buying a few packages of chicken or turkey backs, which you can usually get at the grocery store for $1-$2.  Alternatively, a chicken leg or two, a turkey drumstick or thigh will work equally well.

Justin's Junior Chef Bloggette - Chicken Cacciatore

Hi!  My name is Justin and I am 10.  I like to cook in the kitchen with my mom.  Sometimes we bake, sometimes we make dinner but my specialty is making gravy.  And I have knife skills!  My mom and I have decided that once a week we will make dinner for our family together, and try out a new a easy recipe that is fast and doesn't cost a lot.  I think when I am older I am going to make these kinds of simple meals for my family.

Tonight we made Chicken Cacciatore based on a recipe by Massimo Capra.  He is a chef in Toronto at a restaurant called Mistura and he has a crazy moutstache!  We didn't have all the ingredients for the recipe so we just put in what we had and it was awesome!

My mom has a secret that uses in dishes like this - she keeps the rinds from pieces of parmesan cheese and freezes them, then she adds them into dishes like this for extra flavour.

Here's what you need:

3 chicken quarters, skinned and cut into pieces (or 8 skinless chicken thighs)
1 medium onion, sliced
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
1 box button mushroom, cut in halfs or quarters depending on how big they are
1 can tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
2 bay leaves
rinds from 2 pieces of Parmesan cheese (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

In a large non-stick frying pan, add oil and brown chicken on both sides.  Add garlic and onion and continue to sauté.  Add sliced peppers, sliced onions and mushrooms.  Pour can of chopped tomato over and combine.  Add oregano and bay leaves and Parmesan rinds.    Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, making sure the chicken is falling off the bone.  Right before you eat, be sure to take out the bay leaves and Parmesan rinds.

My mom ate hers with sautéed rapinni (blech) but we had ours with pasta.  Yummy.

Recipe Test: Chicken Skewers with Rosemary & Balsamic Vinegar

Well I am back!  My knee is feeling a bit better though it is a lovely colour of black, blue and purple and I have felt the pressure of being on my feet quit a bit this past weekend partaking my annual pre-Black Friday shopping trip to Grove City, PA.  Ice, Aleve and a glass of nice white wine will help ease my pain LOL.  I always knew that I would suffer for fashion, but I didn't realize until recently that I would suffer for the sake of cooking also!  The show must go on and I do have a party to prepare for and I do not like serving un-tried recipes to friends.  

This recipe is kind of a combination of two different chicken skewer recipes I found on http://www.epicurious.com/ which is one of my favourite sites to find new recipes ideas on.  As usual, I ended up taking what I like from one recipe, combining it with what I like from another and then throwing a bit of "Sandra" into the mix for interest sake.  I really like the flavours of balsamic vinegar, rosemary, figs and black olives together.  If you threw in blue cheese, I probably would be the happiest camper around to be honest.  

Chicken Skewers with Rosemary & Balsamic Vinegar

• 
  
• 6 boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips for skewering
• 1/4 cup olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
• 3-4 sprigs of rosemary (2-3 tbsp)
• 4 tbsp. fig preserves (I used President's Choice Fig & Black Olive Tapenade)

Cut each chicken breast half lengthwise or on an angle into 6 thin strips. Thread each strip completely onto 1 skewer, leaving at least 1/2 inch of skewer exposed at 1 end. Divide skewers between two 15x10x2-inch glass baking dishes, stacking skewers if necessary.  Pour oil into bowl. Whisk in next 5 ingredients. Pour marinade over chicken. Marinate 1 hour at room temperature, turning often, or cover and chill overnight if possible.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Remove skewers from marinade and arrange on 2 large rimmed baking sheets; reserve marinade. Bake chicken until just cooked through, about 15 minutes. Transfer to platter.

While chicken is cooking transfer reserved marinade to medium saucepan. Boil over medium-high heat until reduced in half, about 15 minutes. Cool marinade slightly and strain if desired.  Brush reduced marinade over chicken right before serving.  Garnish with additional rosemary sprigs if desired.


Yummy.