The other day I was looking through a cookbook that I’d not cooked from, yet. Actually I’m not sure I remember how I came by this cookbook. There’s no note inside. It’s called Parisian Home Cooking: Conversations, Recipes, And Tips From The Cooks And Food Merchants Of Paris
Starting off, we didn’t have all the specific ingredients. The chicken was boneless – a mistake – but it’s all we had; and I didn’t have any chicken feet, a calf’s foot, or a pig’s tail – I’m not kidding you – that’s also in the recipe. I’ve learned enough over the last 20 years to know that we American’s are just so Victorian, or fastidious, I guess. We don’t like animal odd parts. We don’t like to look at fish heads. Or dead fish eyes on the fish head. And not all that many of us eat offal, the oddball organs and other things that comprise a whole steer, pig, chicken or lamb. I do like foie gras, but I don’t eat organ meat anymore in general because of the high concentration of bad fats. So we miss out, I suppose, on some awfully good flavor.
But the author cautioned in the write-up that if you don’t have good AGED red wine vinegar, don’t even bother to make this. I don’t know about your local markets, but mine don’t carry anything but the cheapest of red wine vinegars. Stuff that’s most likely mere vinegar with a dollop of red wine, perhaps food coloring to make it look like it’s red wine, it’s bottled and they call it red wine vinegar. If you ever take an honest-to-goodness taste of this stuff, you’ll probably agree with me, it’s awful. I won’t even use it for salad dressings or in cooking. Not having visited any wineries lately where I might have found some good red wine vinegar, a few months ago I resorted to buying a bottle of Cabernet Wine Vinegar at Williams-Sonoma. It’s been aged for 8 months, according to the label. And it’s expensive, I will say, but then I don’t use much of it at any one time. But Williams-Sonoma no longer carries it, I guess (I can’t find it on W-S’s website, anyway). However, several online places carry Banyuls 5-year aged. I’m going to look for that when I’m shopping at some of the high-end markets in our area. Through Amazon it’s $23.95 for a 750ml bottle.
As for chicken feet, a calf’s foot or a pig’s tail . . . uhm . . . I can’t say I’ve seen that at any of my markets, high end or not. Perhaps I could ask for it at one of the few stores I frequent where there’s an honest-to-goodness butcher visible. My guess is they likely won’t have it either. However, the Asian markets near us probably would. I don’t frequent them very often, but next time I’m there I’ll look. So this recipe I/we made didn’t contain any one of those three items. Roberts explained that adding one of those three things would add immeasurably to the flavor in the dish.
This dish was relatively easy to make. As I’ve explained recently, I’ve been under the weather. I AM getting better, but my DH offered to make dinner if I’d coach him. No problem. I sat at our kitchen island with the cookbook at hand, a chopping board in front of me and was the laid-back director of the cooking theater. Dave said he had fun doing it! The dish was good. Next time I’d make more sauce so I’ve upped the quantity in this recipe below. I’d also add mushrooms at the end (not in the original recipe). We/he served it with French glazed carrots and a nice green salad.
My DH (dear husband, just in case you’re a new reader and don’t know my code) had a good day on Sunday. He was the speaker at a Sunday School class at our church. He gave a 20-25 minute speech about “Hope.” He talked about the fact that he’s been a Type 1 diabetic since his 8th birthday, and mostly about the fact that he’s a double amputee. At the end of his talk numerous people in the audience had questions – mostly about his artificial legs and how they work. He also mentioned that when he was diagnosed as a diabetic in 1947, the doctors told his parents that he likely wouldn’t live past the age of 28. They never told Dave that. He’s 70 now and doing well, thank you! Anyway, I was SO proud of him – Dave is a story-teller and speaks to and with people with ease. He doesn’t often speak to groups, but his speech was very interesting, well prepared and very nicely executed. So he was on a roll on Sunday, as they say, and he was ever-so proud of himself when HE put dinner on the table for us. I’m going to be back at the cooking helm now, I think, since I’m feeling better every day. But I was grateful that he wanted to make this dish. He did it very well – VEDDY VEDDY well.
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Chicken in Aged Red Wine Vinegar
Recipe By: Adapted from Michael Roberts’ “Parisian Home Cooking”
Serving Size: 6
4 1/2 pounds chicken pieces — bone-in only
1 whole onion — peeled
2 whole cloves
2 whole carrots
2 stalks celery
1 bunch parsley
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 whole bay leaves
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
Salt to taste
2 chicken feet, 1/2 calf’s foot or a pig’s tail (optional)
1 1/2 cups red wine — robust type like Zinfandel or Cab
3/4 cup aged red wine vinegar
3 cups chicken broth
Freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons cold water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
(See notes about adding mushrooms to this dish)
1. Rinse the chicken pieces and pat dry. Halve the onion and stick a clove in each half.
2. In a large deep casserole (with lid, like Le Crueset, which can be used on the stovetop) make a bed of the onion, carrots, celery, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns, and the chicken feet (if using). Sprinkle this mixture lightly with salt.
3. Arrange the chicken pieces – except the breasts – over the vegetables, skin sides up. Pour in the wine and vinegar. Cover the pot, place over high heat, and bring to a solid simmer for about 5 minutes. Reduce heat add the chicken broth, cover and simmer without boiling, for about 20 minutes.
4. Add the chicken breasts that have been seasoned lightly with salt and pepper and continue simmering for about 20 minutes (or less), or until the chicken is tender.
5. Remove chicken pieces and place in a low oven while you prepare the sauce. Strain the liquid in the pan through a strainer and discard the solids. Pour liquid back into the pot. Dissolve the cornstarch in the water and add to the liquid. Skim the liquid of any impurities that rise to the surface. When you like the consistency of the sauce remove the pot from the heat and add the unsalted butter. Whisk it in until the sauce is smooth. Spoon the sauce over all the chicken pieces and serve any remaining sauce in a small pitcher.
Serving Ideas: Making this again, I’d gently saute about a pound of button mushrooms in a separate pan with some butter, then toss them into the sauce at the end and make that part of this dish. It isn’t in the recipe, but I think it would be a good addition.
Per Serving (assumes you eat all the skin so it’s not accurate): 642 Calories; 40g Fat (60.2% calories from fat); 47g Protein; 13g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 222mg Cholesterol; 618mg Sodium.
A year ago: Breakfast Egg Muffins
Two years ago: Chicken with Red Wine Vinegar Sauce (oh my goodness, I made this exact dish, different recipe, 2 years ago. Serendipity, I think)
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