Culinary Disasters

Ask 30 Italians the ingredients and recipe for any Italian dish and you will get 30 possibly 35 answers in return.  This dish is no doubt of one of them from whether wine is used or water, are mushrooms included, do you stick with a standard sofrito or just do onion, pasta to serve it with, or well I could go on and on. 

Most importantly the entire success or failure of this dish is dependant upon the quality of your ingredients.  If you use the cheapest tomatoes you can find well your sauce will taste cheap.  Also, the key of this dish is the chicken so buy good chickens.  Look for the kind that have been allowed to run free and play in the sun from your local farmer not those pale, depressing, faint hint of chlorine for some strange reason, and sometimes strange color chickens sitting at your local Save-A-Lot.  I like to turn to my new favorite pork/chicken people at http://sevensons.net/ for these and can’t wait to get my shipment in spring (so hard to wait for the good stuff).

For this dish you are going to need:

• 1 whole chicken cut in 6 pieces
• 1 stalk of celery medium dice
• 1 onion medium dice
• 1 carrot medium dice
• 1 bell pepper medium dice
• Couple handfuls of mushrooms sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic finely diced
• Leaves from 1 sprig of rosemary finely diced
• Leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• Tb of capers
• tea of crushed red pepper
• 1 cup of red wine (I used a cabernet)
• 1/2 cup of chicken stock
• 28 ounce can of good quality crushed tomatoes (I used San Marzano)
• 1 cup of parmigiano reggiano cheese
• 4 tb of chopped parsley
• High temperature oil (I used extra light olive oil)
• Unsalted butter
• Kosher salt and pepper
• all-purpose flour
• cooked to al dente fusilli (helix) or rotini pasta (I like using the twisted style for this because the sauce sticks to it better)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Using paper towels pat the chicken dry and sprinkle salt and pepper over the pieces.  Roll the pieces around in the flour to cover and shake off the excess.

Heat an ovenproof pan over medium-high and add in 3 TB of the oil and 1 TB of butter.  Brown the chicken in batches so you do not crowd the pan  (about 5 minutes a side).  As one batch is done remove from the pan and on a plate to rest.

After all the pieces have been browned dump out all but 1 TB of the oil out of the pan.  Add in the celery, pepper, carrot, and onion with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Cook until soft (about 5-8 minutes).

Add in the mushrooms and cook till they are reduced (about 8 minutes).

Add in the garlic and cook for another minute.  After the garlic has cooked add in the wine and reduce by 1/2 (about 5 minutes).

Add the tomatoes, capers, crushed red pepper, and herbs into the pan and bring to a boil.

Add the chicken back into the pan, cover, and place in the oven till the chicken is cooked through (about 25 minutes).  To tell if it is cooked through prick it and if the juices run clear you are good, if not place back in the oven for another 5 minutes and test again.

Once the chicken is done taste the sauce and adjust with salt and pepper. 

You can either toss the pasta into the sauce (what I wish I did) or just plate the pasta and spoon the sauce over it.  Add a piece of chicken, more sauce, cheese, and chopped parsley.

Tags: chicken, All //