It seems there are thousands of ways to make chicken and a limited few ways to make beef or pork. I don’t see how the difference in meat alone can offer an explanation and honestly it is probably only an illusion. I’m quite sure for as many ways you could dress, bake, broil, fry, sauté, roll, simmer, stew or slice poultry, the same could be accomplished with other meats as well.
In reality it mostly like is an delusion based on money. Chicken is cheaper than beef and pork, therefore we buy more which in turn we cook more, which creates the figmented idea there are more ways to cook chicken.
Regardless of the falsity of the idea, the truth is people cook chicken far more often than beef or pork.
That said, what the heck, let’s make chicken.
This is purely, a 100% French recipe that lives and breathes in the quaint countryside of France. I pulled the recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, “Country Cooking Of France”. It’s a gorgeous volume full of recipes and stories about food and French culture. It really is more suited to adorn your coffee table than sit in a cupboard of tattered cookbooks.
I showed this book to my father when I first bought it and he’s had his eye on it ever since. He’s been waiting to find a copy within his budget as to be honest, brand new from Amazon this book costs about $55.00.
Like I said, it’s no ordinary cookbook.
There are certainly recipes in it that do not appeal to my unrefined American tastes but the same can be said for all cookbooks I think. There are several recipes for odd fowls birds, animal organs, snails and although it doesn’t have any recipes for cooking horse, it does have a page that very respectfully talks about the rather common taste and practice for doing so in France.
I have several recipes from here to share but this by far turned out to be one of our favorites.
At first I overlooked this recipe for a very long time because the idea of chicken cooked in vinegar and garlic didnt sound all too appealing. However a few weeks ago I was thumbing through the pages and I was struck by this dish. Something said “Make it.” I tend not to argue with the little voices in my head when I hear them so I did.
When you think of French food, like me, or me at least once upon a time, you make think “complicated” or “time consuming” or even “way outta my league”. In truth many dishes are but many are quite easy.
This is one of them. If you can make chicken parm, you can make this.
Now you may freak out and feel like running for the mouthwash when I tell you, it takes a whole head of garlic and over a cup of red wine vinegar, (if so then I won’t tell you about the recipe that uses nearly 40 cloves of the vampires deterrent). But I promise, once you add the spices, cook it down and simmer, the end result is divine. The original recipe called for straining all of the solids out prior to finishing the sauce but I left them in as I loved the added texture and flavor of the tomatoes and sweet cooked garlic.
This dish was such a surprise and so incredible I did something I have never done before since I started cooking; I made it three times in ten days; the first two times were back to back nights.
I did add some actual red wine to it (I like Clois de Bois Cabernet Sauvignon) just to tweak the tartness from the vinegar to my tastes and it was amazing.
The beauty of this dish is you can really tweak and adjust this recipe to your likening and really not mess it up.
My Dad and Ma came up to visit for a Saturday. I had just finished the weekly baguettes and decided to make this for lunch. They loved it and I hope you do too.
Be happy, be kind and eat well.
Tara
- 3 pounds of cut, skinned chicken, any kind
- 4 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
- I Large head of garlic, skinned and large cloves cut in half.
- 1 cup Red wine vinegar
- ¾ cup Full bodied red wine
- 3 Large tomatoes, diced
- 2 tablespoons Tomato paste
- 1 cup Chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon Thyme or three sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1 Bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon Rosemary
- 1 tablespoon Fresh chopped parsley
- Salt and paper to taste
- Generously season the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Melt half of the butter in a large skillet on medium high heat.
- Add the chicken and brown on both side, about 3-7 minutes each side, depending on size of chicken.
- Reduce the heat to low and add the garlic. Cover and cook for 7-10 minutes. Longer for larger pieces of chicken.
- Drain any excess fat if needed.
- Add wine and vinegar and simmer, uncovered, until liquid is reduced to half.
- Add tomatoes, tomato paste and spices and cook another 5-10 minutes until chicken is tender and easily gives to a fork.
- Transfer the chicken to a plate to keep warm.
- Add the chicken broth to the sauce and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
- Serve the chicken on a plate and cover with the sauce.
- Garnish with parsley.
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