Balsamic Glazed Chicken

This is just another attempt to make a chicken dish seem a bit more than it is. The sweet and sour relish or jam is a nice addition that I usually reserve for pork. The wine sauce made this dish a bit more sophisticated than my normal grilled chicken and added another layer of depth to the overall flavor.

For the Marinade:

1/4C extra virgin olive oil

3T cherry balsamic vinegar

2 large garlic cloves

8 small sage leaves
1t smoked paprika

Directions:

Place the olive oil into the pan you will use for marinading the raw chicken. I prefer a glass pan for marinading. Add the balsamic and paprika.

Finely mince the garlic and sage leaves, then add them to the marinade. Stir all ingredients.

Add the chicken breasts and turn over in the marinade, making certain all the chicken is covered in marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for one or more hours.

For the Fruit/Onion Jam:

1 medium onion

extra virgin olive oil
salt
1/4C dried cherries
3T red currants

1/4C cherry balsamic

Directions:

Pour enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan, add halved and thinly sliced onions and saute with salt until wilted, then add fruit.

Saute the fruit, then slowly add the balsamic and continue stirring until the mixture is fully cooked, when the vinegar has turned the onions to a deep rich color.



Start grilling the chicken while you make the sauce. Place it on a grill pan over a medium heat, and when the juices raise to the top, turn over the breast until it is fully cooked, usually when the juices return again to the top and run clear.

For the Sauce:

2/3 can chicken broth

3/4C dry red wine

1T cracked pepper

2T cherry and red currant onion jam

1T garlic rosemary butter

Directions:

Remove the jam from the pan and deglaze fully with the red wine. Add the balsamic and pepper. Reduce the wine by half.

Heat the chicken broth is a small sauce pan, add the reduced wine and 2T of the jam. Reduce this until it is half the original volume, take off heat and stir in the butter.



Plate the chicken breasts, and either set  the jam on top or to the side, then ladle on the sauce.

Chicken and Sausage Cacciatore

Never one to leave well enough alone (at least in the kitchen), I managed the courage to depart from Nana's traditional Chicken Cacciatore recipe to see if I could place my own personal stamp on it. I eliminated the olives as they are so essential to her recipe and then started adding what I thought might enhance the dish. The next time I try this I am thinking about using hot sausages and adding salt cured olives for their more robust taste and I believe Nana might approve as they are some of the very few olives one can buy these days that still come with their pits intact and she always insisted on olives with pits for cacciatore, saying they tasted better.


Ingredients:
3 large chicken breasts
5 Italian sausages
1 large yellow onion
5 cloves garlic
1 2" sprig of rosemary
1T chopped parsley
1 large can of tomato sauce (I used Contadina)
1/3 large can of water
1 regular can of stewed tomatoes
1 1/2 oz of dried porcini mushrooms
extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Same directions as for Nana's cacciatore; cut the chicken breasts into 3 meaty parts, then fry in the olive oil to brown. As long as we're looking at the raw chicken in the photo, let me take this time to say that Nana's grocery instructions always included the information to "select a chicken with the whitest skin" as it was indeed younger. When the chicken starts shrinking, move it around to fit in the sausage that have been cut into 4 or 5 pieces so it can also brown.

Remove the browned chicken and sausage and place on a plate to rest, then add the diced onions to saute until translucent. Next add in the garlic and minced rosemary to saute while stirring for a minute or two.

Now add in the tomato sauce, water and stewed tomatoes (crush them with your hands if the pieces are big), stir the sauce in, then add back the chicken, sausage and all their juices from the plate.

Stir, then toss in the porcini (I crushed it in dry, but you can place the porcini in hot water first, especially if you suspect they have dirt on them. That water can then be used in place of the 1/3 large can of water). Finally add in the chopped parsley, stir, cover with a lid and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring every 15 minutes to prevent scorching on the bottom of the pan. Use the sauce for topping polenta or over pasta and serve the sausage and meat as another course.

Chicken Cacciatore

This has to be the easiest of all our grandmother's recipes and it's the one I go to when I need to prepare a dinner that is quick and keeps me out of the kitchen except to check on progress. I love to serve it over polenta.


Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1 medium yellow onion
4 large cloves of garlic
4-6 large sage leaves
3T chopped flat leaf parsley
1 can black olives
1 lg can 6in1 tomato sauce
extra virgin olive oil for browning the chicken and sauteing the onion

Directions:


Cut the chicken breasts into thirds leaving on the skin and bone, then saute in a 6 quart saute or frying pan with lid. Add olive oil to the pan and saute the chicken parts over a medium flame. Turn the chicken to brown all sides. When the chicken has browned, remove from the pan and set aside.


Use the same pan so you can have the added flavor of the chicken bits leftover from sauteing the chicken, add the finely diced onion and saute a few minutes. Then add the minced garlic, minced sage, and finely chopped parsley. Saute them for a minute or so. Add the tomato sauce with half a can of water. You might want to substitute 2 small cans of Del Monte tomato sauce for the 6in1, but use less water as it is a thinner product.

Stir to incorporate ingredients evenly. Add back the chicken and any juices that drained from it, so that it is completely covered in the sauce. Now drain the can of olives and pour them on top of the
chicken, cover the pan, and lower the heat to a simmer. After it starts bubbling, stir it and partially uncover so the sauce can thicken from evaporation.

Check this every 15 minutes and stir to prevent sticking. It should be tender and ready to serve within 45 minutes to an hour. If the sauce is getting too thick, you may wish to add more water to thin this out (sometimes I do, other times I don't add water...it depends on the sauce I use, but it was in the original recipe even when Nana used a thinner sauce like Del Monte). The original recipe also calls for olives with pits, but I can never find them. Nana swore they made the cacciatore taste better. Serve over polenta or use as a pasta sauce after carefully taking out the bones.

Fried Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

Nana cautioned me to always cook chicken on the bone for best flavor and tenderness. I would normally not fry a boneless, skinless breast, but employing her methods for frying made this a decent recipe. I admit that I prefer fried chicken with the skin on, but this is still good and there are no bones to deal with afterward. This would make a good work lunch.

Ingredients:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cloves of garlic
2 4" sprigs of rosemary
2 eggs
flour
salt (Nana used pepper too)
olive oil for frying (Nana used Mazzola Corn Oil)

Directions:

Nana made flavored oils long before they became commercially available. Hers were more flavorful too. Put the olive oil in a frying pan to the depth of 1/2" over a medium flame and toss in crushed cloves of garlic and the rosemary sprigs (to make sure there is a strong rosemary flavor, I pound the sprigs with a mallet or the side of a large knife to release some of the oil). When the garlic and herb start sizzling you may add the chicken. Cut the breast into 2-3 pieces for more uniform frying.

Flour the chicken and dip into the egg batter that is just beaten egg and salt (& pepper if you like). Add to the pan, then lower the heat a bit so the chicken cooks slowly.

Here are two photos of fried chicken with bones in and skin on, that have been sprinkled with flaked salt. Not quite as uniform in appearance, but nice and moist.

Chicken with Marmalade Port Sauce

This sauce came about after making a batch of Bergamont and blood orange marmalade. I never even liked marmalade (or Bergamont for that matter) but was encouraged to try making it when I saw the Bergamont oranges for the first (and only) time, shortly after a discussion with friends who had recently tried an easy recipe. This recipe would be fine if made with a classic orange marmalade.


Ingredients:

1/2 cup orange marmalade
1 cup ruby port (Ficklin is my favorite)
1/2 cup chicken stock
2T dijon mustard with seeds
cracked black pepper to taste
1 1/2T of compound butter with garlic, thyme and sweet red pepper
(this can be replaced by the same amount of butter, 1/4t thyme, and 1/2t minced garlic)

Directions:

Place the port, marmalade, and mustard into a nonreactive saucier over medium high heat and reduce in half, then add the chicken stock and reduce again. Mix to a smooth consistancy with an emersion blender.

Add cracked black pepper and bring to a rolling boil to reduce until it thickens.

Take off heat and add the compound butter. Layer over a piece of chicken that has been grilled or roasted.


Serve with a baked potato and compound butter and any green vegetable or mixed vegetables of your own choice.