Sauteed chicken with sauteed chicken provencale variation

6 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
3 pounds Chicken parts (or there abouts)
3 tablespoons Clarified butter or olive oil or 2 tb. butter and 1
1 tablespoon Shallots or scallions, minced
½ cup Chicken stock
½ cup Dry white wine or dry white french vermouth
2 cups Tomato pulp
Mixed fresh thyme, parsley tb. oil
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
pinch Tarragon or thyme
2 tablespoons Butter for final sauce, optional
2 tablespoons Fresh parsley, chives or tarragon, minced and tarragon (a sprinkling)
2 Garlic cloves, pureed

Directions

DEGLAZING SAUCE (OPTIONAL

PROVENCAL VARIATION

Be sure the chicken is well dried or it will not brown properly. Set the frying pan over moderately high heat; add the oil and/ or butter.

when it is hot but not smoking, lay in the chicken pieces skin side down. (Do not crowd the pan; there should be a little air space between each piece for proper browning. Do the chicken in 2 batches, if necessary.) Turn the chicken every 20 seconds or so, allowing it to color a fairly even walnut brown on all sides. If you've a mixture of white meat and dark meat, remove the white meat to a side dish after browning; it takes a little less time to cook than the dark meat.

Finishing the cooking; cover the pan, lower the heat to moderate, and if you've removed the white meat, cook the dark meat slowly (it should sizzle gently) about 6 minutes, turning once. Then return the white meat to the pan. Baste the chicken pieces with the accumulated fat and juices in the pan; season the chicken pieces lightly with salt, pepper and optional herbs. Cover the pan again and cook another 6 minutes. Turn the chicken, baste again, and continue cooking 7 to 8 minutes more, basting konce again.

You can tell the chicken is done when the thickest parts of the drumsticks and thighs are tender when pressed, and when the juices of any pieces of the chicken pricked with a fork, run clear yellow with no traces of pink-it should be juicy.

Deglazing Sauce: Remove the chicken pieces to a hot platter. Rapidly spoon all but a few tablespoons of fat from the pan. Stir in the tablespoon of chopped shallots or scallions and cook for a few seconds over high heat, stirring. Pour in the ½ cup of chicken stock and of wine, and boil, scraping up coagulated juices from the bottom of the pan; continue boiling and swirling the pan for a moment until the liquid has boiled down to almost syrupy consistancy. Remove the pan from the heat and, if you wish, swirl in a tablespoon or two of butter by spoonfuls-to smooth out and enrich the chicken, strew on the optional herbs, and serve as soon as possible.

NOTE: sauteed chicken is at its best when served almost at once. It may be browned in advance, but if you allow it to cool and then reheat, it will always taste like reheated precooked chicken. Sauteed chicken is delicious cold, however.

Dieting notes: Sauteed chicken is not usually for dieters, but thoroughly degresing the final juices and removing the chicken skin after sauteeing will dispense with a lot of calories PROVENCALE: Provencale always means with tomatoes, garlic and olive oil and often olives and other ingredients from the sunny clime.

Saute the chicken in olive oil, as in the master recipe, remove it to a side dish and spoon the fat but not the juices, out of the pan.

Stir in 2 cups of red ripe tomato pulp, a sprinkling of mixed provencale herbs, and a couple of pureed garlic cloves. Boil several minutes to thicken the sauce, correct seasoning, stir in several tablespoonfuls of dry French Vermouth, and return chciken to the pan.

Baste it with the sauce. Cover and simmer several minutes to warm through.

NOTE: Tomato pulp: You must seed and juice your tomatoes. To do so, halve the peeled tomato crosswise (not through the core). Then hold the half over a sieve set in a bowl, gently squeeze to dislodge most of the jelly like substance, juice and seeds. Finally, poke out the residue with your little finger. Press the juices out of the residue in the sieve and use in soup or sauce or as a refreshing drink for the cook. Use the tomato halves for the tomato pulp.

Gleaned from Julia Child's "The Way To Cook" by Mary Riemerman Submitted By MARY RIEMERMAN On 03-28-95

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