Basque Chicken

Here's a perennial favourite of mine, which I've based on a recipe from Patricia Wells' excellent book Bistro Cooking. As she points out, Poulet Basquaise, is one of those standard French bisto dishes, which if not cooked properly, can be pretty grim. However, I make it often: it's easy, quick, and if cooked with care, delicious.

Take some chicken thighs (removing the skins first), and then season them with lots of salt and pepper. Fry the chicken pieces in a pan with some olive oil, until the outside goes golden brown. I find that the salt helps to keep the outside crispy, and the inner meat juicy.

Next, add twelve fat garlic cloves (yes, I mean twelve!), thickly sliced red bell peppers (again, it might be a good idea to remove the skins first), four green chilis cut into strips, and some thick slices of unsmoked ham. Cover the pan, and cook slowly for about an hour, shaking the pan as it cooks, to stop the ingredients burning. The peppers will make lots of cracking noises, and will give off a nicely flavoured liquid.

Finally, it's a simple matter of making a tomato sauce. Cook some chopped onions in some olive oil. Once they're soft, add some chopped tomatoes (or a can of tomatoes in their juice), and cook for about half an hour, until you have a slightly reduced sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve the Basque Chicken with rice, and pour the tomato sauce over the cooked chicken, peppers, garlic and chili.

Comments

[Bon Viveur]

Mmmmm finger licking good... I haven't had this for ages & your version sounds so good (& easy) that I've printed the recipe off & I'm going to make it for supper tomorrow.

[Bon Viveur]

Reporting back... it was delicious - a huge success.

I did however make one tweak. A Spanish friend told me it should have chorizo rather than ham so we compromised by keeping the ham (bacon) but adding pimentòn in the tomato sauce (along with liquid from the chicken as that cooked). So the end result was rather hotter than perhaps originally intended but it went perfectly with a bottle of Languedoc Syrah.