Sometime late last week I came home and noticed a foodie magazine on the table. The name was Bon Appetit, I heard of it before. Never actually ‘looked’ at one. The theme of this issue was and still is, “What’s Hot, What’s Not & What’s Next”, keeeripes. Whatever. Plus there was something about a Pan-Asian menu, not sure what that is all about. Probably something tasty, but full of vegetables no doubt. First page is a car ad, then an ad for a Celebrity Cruise. Neither of which anyone I know can afford, so I continue. I find Bon Appetit is from Los Angeles, what do they know about anything? Botox!!! That ad is on page 113.
Mama notices me flipping at the magazine and says there’s a really nice sounding chicken recipe on page 111 that she’d like to try. I nod and say it really looks like a nice rag and we should definately give it a try!

The title of this grouping of recipes is Fast Easy Fresh, quick dishes for every night cooking. I’d agree with that. For your Mise En Place you’ll need:
2 TB olive oil
1 4+ lb. chicken cut into the respective 8 pieces
1 cup sliced shallots
2 garlic cloves, minced (I used 3 or 4)
1 cup medium Sherry
1 cup low-salt chicken broth (not Swanson’s, sorry Campbells)
1 Orange, halved lengthwise, each half cut into 5 wedges (picky picky)
1/3 cup brined-cured green olives (such as picholine) (use what you got for crissakes).
1 TB Honey (goes in at end to finish sauce)

Preheat the oven to 425, bottom rack ready. In a heavy ovenproof skillet brown the chicken until skin is crispy! Yay for that.

Remove chicken and set aside, reduce heat a bit. Add shallots, stir until soft, about 2 minutes. Add garlic; stir for 30 seconds and add sherry. Reduce by half. Add yer chicken broth and get the sucker boiling a bit, return browned chicken to pan. Add orange wedges & olives, transfer to oven for about 20 minutes, no lid.

Pretty huh? Pull the chicken, AGAIN and set aside. Turn heat to high and stir in the honey, thicken sauce for about 5 minutes. Season with salt & pepper. Return chicken to pan and slather around a bit.

All in all it came out ‘okay’. What with the oranges, a whole cup of shallots & briney olives one might expect a little brighter flavor. Nope, the shallots were caramelized and then everything else was braised. This will mute those bright flavors and what you end up with is basically a browned chicken & orange stew. Which is fine, just not what Mama was going for.
Next.
Xo Xo