Sunday, January 3, 2010

Universal Chicken Dish & Avocado Soup

I'm just taking an educated guess here, but I think almost every culture has a version of this chicken dish. Namely, chicken with garlic.
I've tasted it from many different cultures, but I think one of my favorites is this version from Spain. It's a classic Feel Good Eating dish. Easy to prepare, fresh simple ingredients and super flavor. A real crowd pleaser if you will.
Here we go and because I'm sharing this with you all......promise me you will try this sometime. You won't be disappointed. I wasn't going to share this one as it will be served in the restaurant one day...........it will be a staple there for sure.
Ingredients needed. 1 organic chicken cut into 8 pieces with skin (you can use thighs with skins just as well, about 3.5 pounds), 25-30 cloves of garlic,3 tbsps almond meal, 2 cups chicken stock, 3-4 tbsps of smoked paprika (hot or sweet your choice), 4 tbsps dry white wine, fresh thyme, cilantro and parsely (you can use dried too, but fresh is best.) 1/4 cup heavy cream (optional) salt and pepper to taste. Evoo and butter for saute-ing.

In a large skillet, saute the garlic cloves in butter or evoo. After 2 minutes, remove with slotted spoon. Now the oil or butter will be nicely infused with garlic. Coat the chicken in the almond meal, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. In a large skillet brown the chicken on both sides. About 10 minutes. Watch your heat! Remove the chicken from your pan and add the fresh herbs, chicken stock and white wine. Turn up the heat and add the chicken. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer for about 25-30 minutes. Remove the chicken and bring the rest of your liquid to a boil. Reduce until about 1/2 cup is left. Optional add a splash of heavy cream, mix well and pour over your chicken.


Sorry about the "phone pics". I need a battery for my camera.


So many people I know have an avocado tree in their back yard here. I don't have one, but this time of year I get so many avocados handed to me, I'm not upset that there is no tree in my back yard. Now "Florida" avocados are a little different then the "hass" variety. They are not quite as dense, and they are much bigger with more water. Here's what they look like:

Since I had about 3 of these guys ripe and ready to go, I made some cold avocado soup. Very simple and super tasty. If you have just one hass avocado you can make this too.

Thinly dice and slice some onion, a little bit of fresh pepper of your choice (I used cayenne, but jalapeno works well too), chicken stock, full fat yogurt, lemon juice and fresh cilantro. Salt and pepper to taste. In your food processor, mix the onion, pepper and cilantro together. Now add your avocado and process together. Transfer to a large bowl or container and mix in your chicken stock (the stock shouldn't be warm). Last mix in your yogurt. You could use sour cream, but the full fat yogurt gives it a better flavor in my opinion. If you have some crumbled bacon to add to it before eating, have at it. I didn't have any on hand.


Really yummy soup.
Will you guys let me know what you think of the chicken recipe? And what garlic chicken varieties do you know??

5 comments:

Mark said...

Both sound awesome....we'll be trying both of them!

Teen Girls said...

My hubby came home with waaaaaay too much chicken this weekend and I was trying to think of something to do with it tomorrow. This recipe sounds great!

Robert McLeod said...

Interesting that you post this since I was planning to do chicken with 40 cloves of garlic with some chicken thighs I bought. I would like to find some dry Moroccan olives to go with it but they're difficult to find.

Marc said...

Mark,
I think you will be pleasantly surprised. let me know.

Primal Mama,
Timing is everything right?
Enjoy them.

Robert,
I had my olives last night in my ground lamb stew.
Any variation on the garlic chicken you can share?
Thanks for stopping by!!

Marc

Teen Girls said...

Well, I made it today and it was delicious. I ended up using boneless leg/thighs and fresh thyme to make it. The kids loved it and my husband made more than one comment about how good it was. Thanks!