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When I was in the Loire Valley a few months ago, I had lunch at Chateau Nitray, a winery. I wasn't overly impressed by the wines served with the lunch, but I did enjoy the rustically prepared meal of baked chicken thighs and drumsticks, and the accompaniments of roasted potatoes, tomatoes, and onions. Everything seemed to be simply seasoned and cooked in very hot ovens in well-worn baking dishes.
The lunch also included bread (of course), a simple green salad served after the chicken course to cleanse the palate and get it ready for a selection of cheeses. Then slices of custard tarts were served, and coffee was offered (with real cream -- it's France after all!) under a lovely big apple tree outside.
I have recreated this meal in the past, sometimes roasting some asparagus as an additional side, or making a simple green salad of my own using my house vinaigrette and lovely butter lettuce. But I never deviate from the basic chicken, potatoes, tomatoes, and onion foursome. My own take however, is more flavorful than Nitray's, only because I use more herbs and a lot of garlic, among other ingredients.
In my version, I always marinade the chicken first and although I do add more aromatics than the original, I keep it very simple. Also, rather than thighs, I use breasts with the bone and skin on. Because they can be large and take longer to cook than the drumsticks, I cut them in half to get approximately the same size pieces. This is supposed to be a very unfussy meal, one I know will always come out great, and it's now become my go-to meal for company.
This is before going into the oven. This is the 5th time I am making this. Each time, it's a little different depending on my mood, but the ingredients almost never differ. This time though, I added fresh rosemary because I had some, and a little dry Marsala.
Ingredients:
Chicken drumsticks and breasts
As many garlic cloves I feel like -- sometimes it's 3, this time more like 10
Lemons
Dried thyme usually but as I had fresh sprigs this time I used them
Dried oregano
Few leaves of bay leaves
Fresh rosemary -- I normally don't have this on hand but as I did this time, I used them
A few splashes of sherry vinegar
A few splashes of dry Marsala (can be any wine, or none at all)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Here's what I did.
I always do the chicken first because it can marinade while I prep the vegetables. I tossed the drumsticks and halved breasts (this is different from "splitting") into my larger Dutch oven. I normally use the juice of just 1 lemon and discard the remaining fruit carcass, but I felt like adding it this time. Also I happened to have an additional half lemon, hence the three lemon halves in the pot.
Then came the shakes of dried oregano, sprigs of thyme and rosemary, bay leaves, lazily peeled and cut garlic cloves, splashes of sherry vinegar and Marsala, and salt and pepper. Finally, a few glugs of olive oil to coat everything generously and give a thorough massage.
A note about the aromatics. The most important thing about this dish is its unfussiness. Therefore, it is important to use what's on hand. I almost never have fresh herbs on hand. I don't have a cute little window herb garden, but I do have a decent selection of dried herbs in my cupboard. Also, when I first made this dish I dutifully peeled and crushed the garlic, and even - gasp! - unnecessarily dirtied my large storage container to properly marinade the chicken prior to putting them in the baking vessel of my choice. Now, I just throw everything into the pot and let it marinade there. Today, I just peeled the garlic and tossed in whole the ones that were small, and just sort of cut up the ones that were big to match the size of the smaller cloves.
This is what everything looks like after I'd completed all the steps above. I covered the pot and left it like that while I peeled the potatoes and prepped the other vegetables. If I were to marinade the chicken longer, I'd have put the whole pot as is into my refrigerator. But a) I didn't have the space and b) my apartment is very well air conditioned and the chicken were well chilled so it wasn't like I was breaking any hygiene laws by letting the whole thing sit on my counter while I did the other stuff.
Once the oven is 350-375F, pop the pot in with the lid on and bake until the chicken is cooked through but still looking pale.
(That's maybe like an hour? Maybe longer, maybe shorter?)
Then crank the heat up to the highest the oven will go (the big one goes to 500 but my little Wolf easy-bake oven only goes up to 450F) and cook with the lid off until everything is golden and bubbly and the meat is falling off the bone.
via Recipes to Share Pool http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamburger_helper/42925197924/in/pool-34955636712@N01
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