CHICKEN FRICASSE
Superbly lazy day, isn't it?
Let me tell you a truth: There is absolutely no way to escape Monday. But, but, but....... even before you plan to close this page after reading this, let me tell you there are certainly a lot of ways to beat the blues that arrives with it!!
My theory says, let's celebrate Monday well enough that it fills us with colours of life other than ominous blue. And food that way, spells effortless celebration for sure, right? The chicken dish that I am going to talk about is absolutely stellar for such after office cooking & feeding session, named Chicken Fricasse. Dinner table is certainly not going to be boaring any more!! In case if you feel lazy to join the wagon of home cooking, do use the telephone and opt for take-away. but in any case, continue reading this!!
Be at ease, because I will not send you shopping for Monday dinner table. Look around, and you are sure to find most of it around your house. Even better is you can't, replace ingrediants and come up with your own version. Use that hidden creativity to express love!!
1. Everyone's fridge is filled with leftover rice from your Sunday lunch whether Mutton curry & rice or Rajma-chawal sessions. De-frost that leftover rice and that's your base for serving chicken. Sounds, comforting, already, right?? But, in case if you are planning to cook it fresh, use Dehradun rice, these days that's my favourite!!
2. Time to cube 500 gm chicken thigh meat, about 3 cm approx. (Use your friendly nature & make your butcher or supermarket do it for you).
3. In pan warm up 175 ml port wine. Take them of the hob, once bubbles start appearing on the sides of the pan. Throw is about a small handful of dried mushrooms and keep aside for 10 mins, covered. Strain them after that, reserving the mushroom-y wine. Chop the mushrooms and keep aside.
4. Time to quote the chicken now. Either in a zip-lock pouch or in a deep bowl with cover: Add 3 & 1/2 tbsp flour + 2 tsp black pepper powder + quartered nutmeg, grated + salt ( according to your tastebuds). The chicken cubes need to drudge in this dry rub very well. shake in bag or cover with lid and shake to get job done.
5. I start by chopping one large Leek, into thin slices ( It's better to discard the hard leafy greens, and use the whites). It is absolutely fine, if your chopping skills are as mediocre as mine, so do not fret!! Alongside, chop lengthwise 200 gm chestnuts ( I used the canned ones, you can use fresh as well). Also be happy that this is the only chopping that you need to do.
6. In a heavy bottom pan, add in 50 gm of butter + tad bit olive oil (vegetable or sunflower oil is absolutely fine, in case olive oil isn't around), and allow it to melt. Once they turn frothy, add in the chopped leeks and cook on medium flame for 4-5 mins, till thy soften. I love the aroma & colour when the green and whites bask in that butter. Treat for senses!!
7. Time to add in the chopped mushrooms + 1 tbsp dried thyme and stir well. Time to turn up the heat, and add in the dredged chicken pieces, along with all the excess flour. Give a good stir, until all that flour has disappeared into the pan,. Add in the strained wine now and mix again. Take a deep breath and add in 400 ml chicken stock to the pan. Add in 1 tsp of freshly ground white pepper to the stock & mix. Cover with lid and cook for 10 mins or so, until the sauce thickens. And all of this on medium flame!!
8. Reduce the flame to low, after 10 mins or till thickening of sauce. Cover and cook for another 20 mins. It's advisable to taste and adjust seasoning at this time.Your job is done!! Time to pour yourself a glass of the leftover wine and relax that backbone on the couch.
9. Wine and me-time is absolutely fin!!. But do not leave the chicken alone for 20 mins. Do drop by twice at least to stir the pot a bit. And after 20 mins. turn off the gas. Done.
10. If you eat dinner for the gram or for yourself, a picture is important for sure. Spoon over the chicken cubes along with generous quantity of gravy on a bed of your warmed up rice. Finish it with a sprinkling of Parsley!!
.
DO'S:
1. Get a bottle of port wine ( I have used this bottle, which I carried from my Guwahati trip. A local wine of that region) while getting back home from work, along with chicken thigh meat, with bone or boneless, whichever suits you the best.
2. Use the whites of spring onions (Now is the season for them to be all fatty and in full bloom), in case Leek seems difficult to procure.
3. Try to use freshly pounded black pepper.
4. It is absolutely necessary to season the flour well, as the major seasoning comes from that. In case if you think the heat quotient needs to go up, use more of the black pepper powder.
5. Boil some water and then add in chicken stock cube or concentrate, if like me, you don't want to go into the hassles of making chicken stock!!
4. Use a thick bottom pan ONLY, or else the braising part of this stew will not yield the same comfort, as I would want you to enjoy.
DON'T:
1. In case if you are planning to cook it with chicken breast, I would rather implore you to drop the idea of cooking this. Let me repeat, breast meat is dry, and by the time this is cooked, all you will be left with is overcooked and dry cubes. No point putting your teeth to extra work
2. Use fresh thyme if that's available, in that case the quantity to be added is 2 tsp.
3. There is absolutely no requirement to spend bucks on sourcing dried Porcini mushroom or anything specific, though the original recipe suggests that. At the end, what the mushrooms lend is their earthiness, which becomes one with the mildness of the dish at the end.
This dish was made following the recipe the kitchen Goddesses Nigella Lawson, from her book, At My Table. I am not sure of the origin of this dish, but considering the use of flour & wine & butter, I might not be wrong to point out in the direction of Nice i.e, France!!! If there has to be one more addition that I will for sure do the next time this gets prepared in my kitchen is adding in some garlic. With every morsel that I gobbled, I missed them. Another discovery of sorts, which left me feeling strange: Being a lover of heat in any form, in almost all sorts of food, I somehow felt happy at the absence of chillies.
Balance and harmony goes hand in hand. I needed a plate-full of this comfort food to teach me that.
Have a great week ahead.
Let me tell you a truth: There is absolutely no way to escape Monday. But, but, but....... even before you plan to close this page after reading this, let me tell you there are certainly a lot of ways to beat the blues that arrives with it!!
My theory says, let's celebrate Monday well enough that it fills us with colours of life other than ominous blue. And food that way, spells effortless celebration for sure, right? The chicken dish that I am going to talk about is absolutely stellar for such after office cooking & feeding session, named Chicken Fricasse. Dinner table is certainly not going to be boaring any more!! In case if you feel lazy to join the wagon of home cooking, do use the telephone and opt for take-away. but in any case, continue reading this!!
Be at ease, because I will not send you shopping for Monday dinner table. Look around, and you are sure to find most of it around your house. Even better is you can't, replace ingrediants and come up with your own version. Use that hidden creativity to express love!!
1. Everyone's fridge is filled with leftover rice from your Sunday lunch whether Mutton curry & rice or Rajma-chawal sessions. De-frost that leftover rice and that's your base for serving chicken. Sounds, comforting, already, right?? But, in case if you are planning to cook it fresh, use Dehradun rice, these days that's my favourite!!
2. Time to cube 500 gm chicken thigh meat, about 3 cm approx. (Use your friendly nature & make your butcher or supermarket do it for you).
3. In pan warm up 175 ml port wine. Take them of the hob, once bubbles start appearing on the sides of the pan. Throw is about a small handful of dried mushrooms and keep aside for 10 mins, covered. Strain them after that, reserving the mushroom-y wine. Chop the mushrooms and keep aside.
4. Time to quote the chicken now. Either in a zip-lock pouch or in a deep bowl with cover: Add 3 & 1/2 tbsp flour + 2 tsp black pepper powder + quartered nutmeg, grated + salt ( according to your tastebuds). The chicken cubes need to drudge in this dry rub very well. shake in bag or cover with lid and shake to get job done.
5. I start by chopping one large Leek, into thin slices ( It's better to discard the hard leafy greens, and use the whites). It is absolutely fine, if your chopping skills are as mediocre as mine, so do not fret!! Alongside, chop lengthwise 200 gm chestnuts ( I used the canned ones, you can use fresh as well). Also be happy that this is the only chopping that you need to do.
6. In a heavy bottom pan, add in 50 gm of butter + tad bit olive oil (vegetable or sunflower oil is absolutely fine, in case olive oil isn't around), and allow it to melt. Once they turn frothy, add in the chopped leeks and cook on medium flame for 4-5 mins, till thy soften. I love the aroma & colour when the green and whites bask in that butter. Treat for senses!!
7. Time to add in the chopped mushrooms + 1 tbsp dried thyme and stir well. Time to turn up the heat, and add in the dredged chicken pieces, along with all the excess flour. Give a good stir, until all that flour has disappeared into the pan,. Add in the strained wine now and mix again. Take a deep breath and add in 400 ml chicken stock to the pan. Add in 1 tsp of freshly ground white pepper to the stock & mix. Cover with lid and cook for 10 mins or so, until the sauce thickens. And all of this on medium flame!!
Once the mushrooms are added to the leeks. Isn't the colour amazing?
Followed by the flour coated chicken in the pan!!
Mushroom-y port wine is added & allow it to bubble a bit.
8. Reduce the flame to low, after 10 mins or till thickening of sauce. Cover and cook for another 20 mins. It's advisable to taste and adjust seasoning at this time.Your job is done!! Time to pour yourself a glass of the leftover wine and relax that backbone on the couch.
9. Wine and me-time is absolutely fin!!. But do not leave the chicken alone for 20 mins. Do drop by twice at least to stir the pot a bit. And after 20 mins. turn off the gas. Done.
10. If you eat dinner for the gram or for yourself, a picture is important for sure. Spoon over the chicken cubes along with generous quantity of gravy on a bed of your warmed up rice. Finish it with a sprinkling of Parsley!!
.
DO'S:
1. Get a bottle of port wine ( I have used this bottle, which I carried from my Guwahati trip. A local wine of that region) while getting back home from work, along with chicken thigh meat, with bone or boneless, whichever suits you the best.
2. Use the whites of spring onions (Now is the season for them to be all fatty and in full bloom), in case Leek seems difficult to procure.
3. Try to use freshly pounded black pepper.
4. It is absolutely necessary to season the flour well, as the major seasoning comes from that. In case if you think the heat quotient needs to go up, use more of the black pepper powder.
5. Boil some water and then add in chicken stock cube or concentrate, if like me, you don't want to go into the hassles of making chicken stock!!
4. Use a thick bottom pan ONLY, or else the braising part of this stew will not yield the same comfort, as I would want you to enjoy.
DON'T:
1. In case if you are planning to cook it with chicken breast, I would rather implore you to drop the idea of cooking this. Let me repeat, breast meat is dry, and by the time this is cooked, all you will be left with is overcooked and dry cubes. No point putting your teeth to extra work
2. Use fresh thyme if that's available, in that case the quantity to be added is 2 tsp.
3. There is absolutely no requirement to spend bucks on sourcing dried Porcini mushroom or anything specific, though the original recipe suggests that. At the end, what the mushrooms lend is their earthiness, which becomes one with the mildness of the dish at the end.
This dish was made following the recipe the kitchen Goddesses Nigella Lawson, from her book, At My Table. I am not sure of the origin of this dish, but considering the use of flour & wine & butter, I might not be wrong to point out in the direction of Nice i.e, France!!! If there has to be one more addition that I will for sure do the next time this gets prepared in my kitchen is adding in some garlic. With every morsel that I gobbled, I missed them. Another discovery of sorts, which left me feeling strange: Being a lover of heat in any form, in almost all sorts of food, I somehow felt happy at the absence of chillies.
Balance and harmony goes hand in hand. I needed a plate-full of this comfort food to teach me that.
Have a great week ahead.
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