Chef John’s Chicken D’Arduini

I made a variation of this recipe yesterday. Really good, and not a lot of work:

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken, quartered (original recipe says 8 chicken thighs (bone-in, no skin), and 8 chicken legs 8
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup chopped Italian parsley (I skipped this)
• 1/4 cup chopped basil
• 1 tbl dried rosemary (I used a little more)
• 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes (I used a lot more)
• 2 oz anchovy fillets (I used nearly 2 cans — I had some left over from the Red Clam Sauce)
• 1/2 plus 1/3 cup red wine
• 1/4 cup vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar).
  
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 can black pitted olives.
• mushrooms (I used mushrooms that had been stored in oil — fresh mushrooms would be better. This hearty, woodsy mushrooms (like portobello).

Link back to Chef John’s Blog

Basically, I did the following:

1. Browned the chicken in olive oil. Removed it.
2. Let the pan of oil + chicken fat cool to where it wouldn’t brown the garlic.
3. Threw in the garlic and anchovy. Cooked over low heat until anchovy had dissolved and garlic was cooked but not browned.
4. Added the chicken back in, along with the basil, rosmary, salt, hot pepper, vinegar, and 1/3 cup of wine.
5. Covered and cooked on low for ~30 minutes.
6. Uncovered and cooked on low/med for awhile (~30 minute) until chicken was falling off the bone.
7. Threw in a can of black olives and the mushrooms. Covered and simmered for 10 minutes.
8. Removed the lid, and heated on high. This had an amazing affect, not only did it reduce the sauce but (according to Chef John) it emulsified the chicken fat. All I know is the sauce instantly thickened when I turned the heat up, so reduction alone doesn’t explain it.
9. Threw is some fresh sage and chopped basil.
10. Finished the dish with 1/2 cup red wine . Cooked for 5-8 minutes to boil off alcohol.
11. Covered and let rest. I let it rest for 45 minutes until it was dinner time (I started cooking this early). That is obviously longer than a “rest” but it’s the sort of food that you can let sit.

It was very good. Some of the rosemary was still firm (doesn’t it soften?) but the taste was very good. I’d go a little more easy with the olive oil next time, use more and larger mushrooms, and definitely use some artichokes. Mmmm.

The result is a stew that reminds me of my Grandmother’s cooking — I’d like to try this with Rabbit some day.

Chef John says you can’t use chicken breast for this, and he’s mostly right. The dark meat is certainly better because the light meat dries out. Using a whole chicken was economical (chicken legs/thighs were overpriced at the grocery store that day) and I’d do it again — the dish was overall juicy even if some of the breast was slightly dry. I might throw the olives in earlier and/or chop them up so you get more olive flavour across the dish. Also, this would probably go well over polenta, but you would need to make sure there is much more sauce than the standard recipe generates.

Really good, all in all — another winner for Chef John.

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