Braised Chicken, Picadillo Style

[fifi]

Braised Chicken, Picadillo Style

Serves 4 as Main Dish.

This recipe is a result of devising a braised chicken recipe to approximate the flavors of a recipe that my dad worked on interminably. He had seen a recipe for a stew called Picadillo in a magazine or book or something and was intrigued with it. After several trials, he developed his own recipe that was truly magical. I wanted to capture the flavor and essence of his work in a braised chicken recipe and I think this is it.

• 2 T olive oil
  
• 2 T chicken fat (could use butter)
  
• 8 Chicken thighs, about 3 ½ pounds, skinless or not (see notes)
  
• Kosher salt, to taste
  
• 1/2 c all purpose flour
  
• 1-1/2 tsp teaspoons paprika, I used Pimenton de la Vera
  
• 1 tsp ground cumin
  
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
  
• 1 c onion, diced
  
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
  
• 1-1/2 c white wine
  
• 1/4 c white wine vinegar
  
• 1/2 c green olives thickly sliced (I used a spiced version)
  
• 1 T capers in vinegar, rinsed
  
• Rind from ½ preserved lemon, rinsed and diced
  

Garnish

• Toasted almond slivers
  
• White raisins, plumped in white wine
  

In a large skillet, start to heat the olive oil and chicken fat.

Lightly salt the chicken thighs. Keep in mind that olives and such will be adding salt.

In a large zip type plastic bag (I use a 2 gallon), mix the flour, paprika, cumin and black pepper. Put the chicken thighs in and toss to coat. Shake off excess flour and put into the pan to brown, skin side down. Brown well. Turn and brown the other side. Remove to a plate.

Sauté the onion in the pan and begin to deglaze with the onion. When the onion is translucent, add the garlic and cook a few more minutes. Add the wine and vinegar and stir to get all of the brown bits into the liquid. Add the olives, capers and finely diced preserved lemon.

In the braising pot, distribute the liquid mixture over the chicken pieces. Liquid should come about half way up the chicken. Braise at 250 degrees for about 2 ½ hours or until the chicken is meltingly tender.

Remove the skin and refrigerate the thighs with the braising liquid. The next day, reheat the braise starting in a cold oven, setting the temperature to 250 degrees F. In about 30 to 45 minutes, the dish should be at serving temperature.

Serve with rice and garnish with the plumped white raisins and toasted almonds.

Notes:

If you are not going to hold over for the second day, start with skinless chicken. Braised chicken skin is not necessarily pleasant. The two day process has the advantage of adding some gelatin and flavor to the final dish but is not essential.

In the two day method, I have reserved the chicken skin and crisped it under the broiler, using the “chicken cracklin’s” as a part of the garnish.

This is the recipe that I used in the eGCI recipe trial here.

Keywords: Main Dish, Intermediate, Chicken, Lunch, Dinner

( RG1196 )