Mary Ann's Blog
Playing Chicken
February 12, 2018
For years I have been trying to perfect my Sicilian grandmother’s chicken in wine dish. I am not even close but I am not giving up. I can still taste that succulent dish permeated with wine and rosemary. My latest thought was to use a cast iron pan because I remember that is what she used. I know she cut the chicken into small pieces but there my recollection stops. What else did she use besides the wine that my grandfather made that was only good for cooking anyway? Onions, garlic, lard?
I decided to give it another go and make it again using chicken thighs. Instead of lard I heated some olive oil in a cast iron pan; the chicken was seasoned with flour, salt, pepper and paprika. I browned the chicken first, removed it, and coked the onions and garlic until soft. Back into the pan with the chicken, a couple sprigs of rosemary and about ½ cup of white wine that I let boil off until it almost evaporated. It was smelling good. I added just enough wine to keep the chicken from sticking to the pan and cooked it for about 25 minutes. To bump up the flavor even more, I squirted in the juice of a lemon. The first forkful told me that it was delicious, tender, juicy, winey, respectable, closer to the original but still something was missing but I am not chickening out.
To be continued.
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