Elizabeth Minchilli said she learned at a recent workshop on food-blogging that people click most often on chicken recipes, so she obliged with this weekday recipe that is simple and delicious.
First step is to brown 4 thighs and 4 legs in 1/4 c olive oil. Minchilli stresses the importance of letting the chicken fry without moving it around in order for it to get good and brown, about 6 or 7 min per side. It really works! The skin side gets crispy and brown and stays that way through the subsequent stewing process.
Remove the chicken and add three cubed (but not peeled) medium eggplants to the hot oil, and again let it brown. Not sure how big her medium eggplants are, but mine filled the sauteuse that I was obliged to stir the cubes around a bit to get them all to brown. Then add 5 cloves of chopped garlic and cook for a further 3 minutes. Add 1-1/2 c white wine and bubble up a couple of minutes to deglaze bottom of pan. At this point, add 1 c water some of the 2 c of basil leaves, reduce heat, cover and cook for another 20 min or so. To finish, add the rest of the basil.
I'll confess that embarrassingly I was unaware we don't yet have basil in our garden, so I belatedly had to adapt by simply sprinkling in some dried Herbes de Provence. But it was still quite delicious and I'm not sure you need the herb or at least need to be confined to one or the other. I could imagine this tasting quite good with tarragon, for instance.
Minchilli has a short rif about how bland boneless skinless chicken breasts are and why she never uses them. Never say never, I say, but there's no question the dark meat is more flavorful. An the family pack price at Whole Foods for $1.99/lb meant that I could get 5 leg-thighs for $6.67 and have my 8 pieces for the recipe with 2 left over for stock.
The dish comes out creamily Mediterranean -- all that eggplant and olive oil! -- and went nicely with brown rice and a French rose.
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