Thursday, March 31, 2011

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Last night I made Chicken Vesuvio, which is chicken with potatoes and artichoke hearts in a white wine sauce.  This is a favorite of mine which for some reason I had made only a few times before, and never for Corey.  This is definitely something that will go on our "favorites" list.
The original recipe is courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis, and I made only a few changes.  I made 2 servings, and used bone-in chicken breast.  I also used canned artichoke hearts instead of frozen as per the recipe.  I love to cook with Whole Foods' 365 brand canned artichokes which are canned in water rather than the usual jarred kind which are in oil.  I like to always have a can on hand, and happened to have some in the fridge leftover I wanted to use up, which was why I wanted to make this dish.
I love to cook this way - browning everything on the stovetop, and then cooking everything together in the same pan in the oven.  I love to use our Calphalon pans for this, which are anodized with a nonstick interior.  You will see these black pans in a lot of my photos here.  They allow for perfect browning on the stovetop, are oven safe, and are so easy to clean, without any scrubbing.  Because of the material, I use less oil or a light spray of my 100% olive oil spray.  These pans brown so much better than other nonstick pans I've used before, and the nonstick interior does not peel off or scratch.

Here's a photo of the finished product:
Mmmmm
Here's how I made it-
Ingredients:
1T olive oil
2 chicken breasts with skin and bones
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 small red-skinned potatoes, halved
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2C dry white wine
1/2C low sodium chicken broth
1t dried oregano
3/4t dried thyme
4 whole canned artichoke hearts, excess water squeezed out, and quartered
1T unsalted butter

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 450.
Heat the oil in large ovenproof pan over medium-high heat.
Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.
Add the chicken to the saute pan and cook until golden brown on all sides, about 10 minutes.
Remove the chicken to a bowl.
Carefully add the potatoes to the same pot and cook until they are golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.

Cute little potatoes

Add the wine and stir to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot.
Add the broth, oregano, and thyme.
Return the chicken to the pot, along with any juices from the bowl, and arrange the potatoes around the chicken.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Lookin' good

Cover, put the pan in the oven and bake until the chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes.
Transfer the chicken and potatoes to plates.
Add the artichoke hearts to the sauce in the pot.
Cover and simmer over medium-high heat until the artichokes are tender, stirring often, about 4 minutes. Turn heat to low and stir in the butter.
Pour the sauce over chicken and potatoes, and serve.

It was really delicious.  Corey's only comment was that he wanted more artichokes, and in fact he tried to steal some of mine...OK I relented.  I used a Chardonnay from Argentina for this, which worked perfectly.  A winner!

Here's the link for the original recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chicken-vesuvio-recipe/index.html

I also made some baby spinach to go along with this.
I heated a little olive oil over medium heat, about 1t, in another 1 of these pans, added some sliced garlic and cooked for 1 minute.  Then I added some baby spinach to the pan and cooked it, turning with tongs, until wilted.  I added some grated lemon zest and a sprinkle of sea salt.

Are you going to try this? Let me know what you think!

2 comments:

  1. Im going to try this for dinner tonight!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great, let me know how you like it!
    Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

    ReplyDelete