Chicken with Wine / Pollo con Vino

I once admitted on national television that I could not remember how to make my Grandmother Saporito’s chicken in wine dish: never mind that I had eaten that dish so many times. I even called my Aunt Phoebe, who lived with Grandma her entire life, to find out the secret… Sadly, she had no clue. So we put this recipe together from memory, Aunt Phoebe remembering one thing, me another. What follows is not exactly like Grandma’s, but it’s good in its own right; I still get letters from viewers who tell me I they’ve made this and they like it. They also tell me I should have paid more attention to what Grandma did. Enough said!

SERVES 8 to 10

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose King Arthur Flour
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
  • 2 3-pound chickens, each cut intopieces
  • 6 to 8 tablespoons olive oil
  • 6 to 8 tablespoons butter
  • 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
  • 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup diced onion
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 cups dry red wine

Directions

  1.  Mix the flour, salt, and pepper and spread it on a plate.
  2.  Rinse and dry the chicken pieces.  Dredge each piece in the seasoned flour, shaking off the excess.
  3.  In a large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons each of the oil and butter and sauté the garlic until soft.  Remove the garlic to a bowl.  Add the red pepper and onions to the frying pan and sauté until soft.  Add to the garlic and set aside.
  4.  Add 2 tablespoons each of the olive oil and butter to the frying pan and brown the chicken pieces in batches, adding more oil and butter as needed, until golden on all sides, about 10 minutes.  Return all the chicken to the pan and splash on the red wine vinegar and cook until the liquid has evaporated.  Add the onions and garlic and 1 cup of the red wine and cook the chicken over medium-high heat until most of the wine has evaporated and the chicken is beginning to take on a glaze.
  5.  Lower the heat to medium, add the remaining 1 cup wine, and cook the chicken until it is a dark rich color and well glazed and most of the wine has evaporated, about 15 minutes.
  6.  Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and spoon the pan juices and vegetables over.  Serve immediately.

This recipe was featured on Season 16 - Episode 1606.

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Comments

stephanie cataliotti

My grandmother (mamma), she made chickens (cut up with bones in) everyone said the recipe was oil and vinegar. It never tasted the same, So I decided to try red wine instead of vinegar and some chicken broth. It seemed to taste the same. I tried putting less broth and a little more oil. I seem to be getting close. Does anyone out there have Mamma’s chicken recipe? She refused to give it to anyone, She died with it. Now the angels get to eat.

Thanx, angelsay@ptd.net

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