My food photography skills notwithstanding, this dish was awesome.
After the previous week's cooking class, I immediately wanted to try my hand at some of the recipes that I didn't get to work on. One of the dishes that I loved there was the first recipe in the pack: Balsamic Chicken with Polenta. Being that I'm a huge fan of balsamic vinegar, this one jumped to the head of the line.
Once you get all the ingredients ready, the dish itself is fairly easy to execute. It does take some time to cook - 30-40 minutes once everything is in the pan - so you may not want to get this started on a hectic weeknight when all you really have time for is a grilled cheese, but if you've got a good solid hour to cook, you can easily bang this out. After all, you're not doing anything for half of it.
You can use any part of the chicken you like for this recipe, but I've always been a bigger fan of white meat so I picked up a couple of breasts on the bone at Whole Foods and asked the butcher to hack them in half so I'd have four, more reasonably sized pieces. This is a dish where getting chicken on the bone is superior to getting your regular boneless, skinless chicken. There's just that extra amount of flavor that the bones add when braising (and the extra amount of fat from the skin) that makes the addition worth it. There's always the option to skin and bone the chicken after cooking, so you can easily dispense with these later when it comes time to serve.
Preparing the chicken is easy. Pat the skin dry, give it a good shake in a bag with some flour, and set it in a preheated pan with some olive oil for about eight minutes on each side for a good browning. Once that's done (and you can do it batches if your pan isn't big enough for all of the chicken to brown in a single layer), throw in some chopped onion and sliced red bell pepper until those get soft and slightly brown. Then, throw in several cloves of chopped garlic and wait until your kitchen gets that wonderful home-cookin' smell that only onions, bell peppers, and garlic can produce. Follow that by putting a mixture of fresh rosemary, red pepper flakes, balsamic vinegar, and a nice-bodied red wine - I know nothing about wine, so I just used a Merlot on sale for under $10 - and nestle the chicken back into the pan. Lower the flame so the liquid is just simmering, cover it all up, and go watch an episode of Community. Once the chicken is done you'll want to reduce the sauce to thicken it a bit, but that's it. Yes, the chicken takes some time, but the preparation is incredibly simple and the result is ridiculously delicious and tender and so full of herb-y, wine-y flavor. I'm telling you, it's worth it.
The finished dish serves the chicken and sauce on top of prepared, tubed polenta sliced into rounds and sauteed until crispy. You could just as well do that, but because I had a half of a bag of Bob's Red Mill in my cabinet and didn't want to spend the money on more polenta, I just whisked up a fresh batch and dolloped it on the bottom of my plate. Making your own polenta takes a little bit more effort (I just follow the directions on the package), but if you've got the time you can easily do this while the chicken is cooking and still have everything ready at the same time.
With a glass of red wine on the side, this is a dish that easy to execute but is impressive in its taste. It would be perfect for the first time you have that new gentleman or lady friend over for a home-cooked meal...with a dusting of flour in your hair, the stain of wine and vinegar on your fingers, and the scent of sautéing aromatics filling your apartment, you could easily feign hours spent in the kitchen preparing something special for your paramour. Which, of course, you wouldn't have spent, but, hey, there's no harm in reaping the rewards for your apparent efforts.
After the previous week's cooking class, I immediately wanted to try my hand at some of the recipes that I didn't get to work on. One of the dishes that I loved there was the first recipe in the pack: Balsamic Chicken with Polenta. Being that I'm a huge fan of balsamic vinegar, this one jumped to the head of the line.
Once you get all the ingredients ready, the dish itself is fairly easy to execute. It does take some time to cook - 30-40 minutes once everything is in the pan - so you may not want to get this started on a hectic weeknight when all you really have time for is a grilled cheese, but if you've got a good solid hour to cook, you can easily bang this out. After all, you're not doing anything for half of it.
You can use any part of the chicken you like for this recipe, but I've always been a bigger fan of white meat so I picked up a couple of breasts on the bone at Whole Foods and asked the butcher to hack them in half so I'd have four, more reasonably sized pieces. This is a dish where getting chicken on the bone is superior to getting your regular boneless, skinless chicken. There's just that extra amount of flavor that the bones add when braising (and the extra amount of fat from the skin) that makes the addition worth it. There's always the option to skin and bone the chicken after cooking, so you can easily dispense with these later when it comes time to serve.
Preparing the chicken is easy. Pat the skin dry, give it a good shake in a bag with some flour, and set it in a preheated pan with some olive oil for about eight minutes on each side for a good browning. Once that's done (and you can do it batches if your pan isn't big enough for all of the chicken to brown in a single layer), throw in some chopped onion and sliced red bell pepper until those get soft and slightly brown. Then, throw in several cloves of chopped garlic and wait until your kitchen gets that wonderful home-cookin' smell that only onions, bell peppers, and garlic can produce. Follow that by putting a mixture of fresh rosemary, red pepper flakes, balsamic vinegar, and a nice-bodied red wine - I know nothing about wine, so I just used a Merlot on sale for under $10 - and nestle the chicken back into the pan. Lower the flame so the liquid is just simmering, cover it all up, and go watch an episode of Community. Once the chicken is done you'll want to reduce the sauce to thicken it a bit, but that's it. Yes, the chicken takes some time, but the preparation is incredibly simple and the result is ridiculously delicious and tender and so full of herb-y, wine-y flavor. I'm telling you, it's worth it.
The finished dish serves the chicken and sauce on top of prepared, tubed polenta sliced into rounds and sauteed until crispy. You could just as well do that, but because I had a half of a bag of Bob's Red Mill in my cabinet and didn't want to spend the money on more polenta, I just whisked up a fresh batch and dolloped it on the bottom of my plate. Making your own polenta takes a little bit more effort (I just follow the directions on the package), but if you've got the time you can easily do this while the chicken is cooking and still have everything ready at the same time.
With a glass of red wine on the side, this is a dish that easy to execute but is impressive in its taste. It would be perfect for the first time you have that new gentleman or lady friend over for a home-cooked meal...with a dusting of flour in your hair, the stain of wine and vinegar on your fingers, and the scent of sautéing aromatics filling your apartment, you could easily feign hours spent in the kitchen preparing something special for your paramour. Which, of course, you wouldn't have spent, but, hey, there's no harm in reaping the rewards for your apparent efforts.
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