Archive

ITALIAN RECIPES

Chopping Up a Chicken

Savory Chicken

Ingredients:

A 1 1/2-pound (650 g) chicken, cut into pieces.
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
4 cups broth (unsalted bullion will work fine; you won't need it all)
Fresh sage, garlic, marjoram and lemon juice to taste
Salt

Preparation:

Put the chicken pieces in a bowl. Mince the herbs in proportions to taste, combine them with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and lemon juice to taste, and pour the marinade over the chicken. Marinate the chicken for at least two hours, turning the pieces frequently.
Drain the pieces, reserving the marinade, and brown them in a pot with the remaining olive oil.

In the meantime filter the marinade. When the meat is browned on all sides sprinkle the wine over it and continue cooking.
When it has evaporated, sprinkle in the filtered marinade and continue cooking the chicken until it is done (the meat will pull away from the bones and the juices will run clear if you stick a skewer into a joint), adding the broth a few spoonfuls at a time to keep things from drying out. The total cooking time should be about an hour, or perhaps slightly more.
The wine? A Rosso di Montalcino or a Chianti D'Annata.

Chicken and Beef Marsala

Ingredients:

The meat of choice (see below for specifics)
Broth (low sodium canned will work if need be)
Marsala
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

From Cosa Bolle in Pentola, my free newsletter: Winding down, Joyce requests Chicken Marsala. Here’s a recipe from Il Re Dei Cuochi, a book Salani published anonymously in 1885:
“Chop a young chicken and sauté it in a dollop of butter, with a small onion, minced, seasoning everything with salt and pepper.

When the meat is browned, sprinkle it with broth (you’ll want about a half cup), reduce the heat to a simmer and finish cooking it.
When the meat is done strain the juices, degrease them if necessary, and return them to the pot with two fingers (of a glass) of Marsala.
Stir the chicken around, bring the sauce to a boil, and serve.

Chicken Fricassee

Take two well-fleshed normal-sized free range chickens, flame them to remove any pinfeathers they may have, chop them into pieces, and set them to soak in warm water with the liver, gizzard (cut it open and rinse out the contents) and neck.
After a few minutes drain the pieces and transfer them to a pot with a chunk of unsalted butter, a bunch of parsley, several shallots, a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, several basil leaves, two cloves, some sliced mushrooms, and a slice of prosciutto.

Simmer it all over a low flame, turning the pieces occasionally, until all the liquid has evaporated; at this point add a goodly sprinkling of flour and some hot water. Season all with salt and pepper, and cook until the sauce is again reduced.

By now the chicken should be done; lightly beat three egg yolks and dilute them with milk or cream. Stir the egg mixture into the chicken and heat all gently until the sauce thickens, being careful to keep it from boiling.

Season it to taste with lemon juice or vinegar, then arrange the chicken pieces on a platter, in the positions they occupied when the bird was alive, spoon the sauce and the mushrooms over them, and serve.

If you want a whiter fricassee, skin the chicken pieces before you cook them. To make fricassee alla bourgeoise, arrange the chicken pieces on a heat-proof serving platter and cover them with crumbled crustless bread, which you will then want to dot with butter. Heat the dish through in the oven to brown the bread and serve.
The authors note that this is a very good way to serve a fricassee a second time, because the absence of a piece or two won't be immediately apparent.

Chicken Cacciatora with Mushrooms

Ingredients:

1 large chicken, cut into pieces
Flour
1 heaping teaspoon tomato paste, diluted in a cup of water
1/4 cup (50 gr) unsalted butter
1 ounce pancetta or seasoned lard, diced
1/2 ounce (10 g) dried porcini or more to taste, steeped for 20 minutes in hot water and
then sliced, or 3/4 pound (300 g) fresh cultivated mushrooms, sliced
A small onion, sliced

Preparation:

Flour the chicken pieces.
Sauté the sliced onion in the butter until it begins to brown, then add the lard or pancetta and the chicken pieces, and brown them over a brisk flame.
Stir in the water and tomato sauce (If you're using dried mushrooms, you may want to use the water they steeped in, filtering it lest it contain sand), cover, and cook the chicken until it's done (the meat will begin to pull back along the drumsticks), stirring the pieces around every now and again lest they stick down and burn.

10 minutes before the bird is done stir in the dried mushrooms.
If, on the other hand, you're using fresh mushrooms add them five minutes before the bird is done, and cook uncovered over a slightly brisker flame so the water they give off will evaporate.
A wine? Red, and I'd go with a Valcalepio, which is made in the foothills above Bergamo, not far from Brianza.

Chicken Marengo

Clean two chickens and cut them into 6 pieces each, in other words three from the breast, the thighs, and the backs, plus the wings and the drumsticks, which should be boned.
Put the pieces in a pot with a quarter cup of oil and a half cup of unsalted butter [you can, if you want, reduce the amount of fat], and add to them 2 onions, a carrot, and a stalk of celery, all sliced finely.

Cook until the meat has colored and the onions are golden, then stir in 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 cups of broth or water, check seasoning, and simmer until the meat is tender than the sauce is reduced. Transfer the birds to a heated platter, degrease the sauce and either strain it or blend it, pour it over them meat, and serve.

Buon appetito!

10631 Vinedale Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352 - Phone (818) 767-3413 - Fax: (818) 767-1410