Consuming Passions - Worldwide Events Managers

Chicken Tomato Treat

Serves: 4

Notes

One of the most delightful taste combinations is tomatoes with chicken. The Italians acknowledge the fact with their pollo al cacciatore as do the French with poulet à la provençale. Here is an Australian recipe which unites the best of French and Italian dishes.

Ingredients

• 1 roasting chicken, (jointed into pieces with skin removed)
• 2 Tbsp virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 glass dry sherry
• 500 g fresh or 1×410 g of tomatoes
• Handful of fresh basil

Method

Brown chicken pieces in a little olive oil along with cloves of garlic in their skins. (If you are a garlic wimp you can remove cloves later). I use virgin oil because this dish benefits from the flavour of olives. Over high heat, flame with a glass of dry sherry. Don’t worry about the alcohol. It will evaporate, leaving only the beautiful sherry flavours. Once the flame has gone out, add tomatoes. Cover and simmer very slowly for 40 minutes. (you should hear a gentle “bloop bloop” not a noisy “hubbla bubbla”), Once cooked, remove the chicken pieces to a warm dish and keep warm. Remove garlic and discard unless you like garlic as much as I do. In which case, squeeze the softened garlic from the skin and put it into the sauce, discarding the skins. Reduce the sauce to a thick consistency and pour over chicken pieces. Add chopped fresh basil leaves and serve. (Don’t use dried basil; even small amounts will over-power the dish.) A perfect accompaniment for this richly flavoured dish is plain noodles tossed in some finely chopped parsley, garlic and lemon rind – a combination of flavours the Italians call gremolata, and which traditionally accompanies their famous veal dish, Osso Bucco.

Note: Although it’s commonly roasted breast-up, when roasting a whole chicken in the oven, it makes much more sense to roast it the other way up, sitting on the breast. That way, gravity will draw the juices from the back into the breast, keeping the breast-meat moist.