Mediterranean Chicken Ragout

Hello everyone,

This recipe has everything that makes it a perfect choice for weekday dinners.

I am talking about a juicy, pan-fried chicken with probably the best of the Mediterranean region: olives, capers, roasted and sun dried tomatoes and herbs all sitting in a creamy, buttery wine sauce. It's ready within an hour, easy to make and utterly delicious. Serve with polenta, creamy mashed potatoes, cous-cous or orzo. Do I need to say more?

Let’s jump in!

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken legs (the upper part of the thigh and the drumstick separated)
• 2 chicken breast fillets
• 2 tablespoons salt
• ½ tablespoon freshly ground pepper
• ½ tablespoon smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 onion
• 8 garlic cloves
• 120 ml rosé wine (or white wine if you wish)
• 250 ml chicken stock
• 120 g olives
• 80 g capers
• 120 ml cream
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 70 g sun-dried (or oven-dried) tomatoes*
• 8-10 fresh thyme sprigs,
• a few oregano sprigs,
• a small bunch of parsley
• 15-20 fresh basil leaves
• 70 g chorizo (or other sausage you like)

• 250 g cherry tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt, pepper

Tools:

• thick-bottomed skillet
• cutting board
• knife
• baking tray
• parchment paper
• small whisk

* you can make it yourself easily, check out here.

Season the chicken parts with salt and pepper.

Peel and finely chop the onions.

Remove peel, crush and chop garlic.

Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (grill and fan).

Wash and dry tomatoes, cover a baking tray with parchment paper, drizzle with olive oil, place cherry tomatoes on top, drizzle with some more oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast the tomatoes for 5-10 minutes (depending on size of tomatoes and oven) until they have slightly collapsed and are golden brown.

Heat the butter together with the olive oil in a thick bottomed skillet over medium / high heat.

Place the chicken parts (or so many of them that fit in the skillet in one layer without overcrowding) and fry without moving them around* until the side facing down gets golden brown (approximately 4-6 minutes), then turn them and fry the other side, too.

Remove them onto a plate.

If not all chicken parts fit into the skillet, fry those left out in the first round.

Season the fried chicken parts with smoked paprika. (The reason I do not like to add paprika before frying is that it gets burned really easily, this way you can avoid that.)

* The "no moving" thing is because if you move them around they are likely to get cooked rather then fried and we don’t want that.

Lower the heat to medium, add chopped onions into the skillet (no extra fat needed) and cook until translucent. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant.

Deglaze with wine (it is nothing fancy really, just pour wine in to help the caramellized particles stuck to the bottom of the pan to release), then also add stock.

Bring it to boil and place the chicken parts back into the skillet. Cook for about 20 minutes until the meat is fully cooked.

When the chicken got cooked, there was too much liquid in the skillet, it seemed to turn more like into a soup then a ragout as I planned.

On the other hand, I did not want to risk the meat falling apart as a result of further boiling, therefore I ladled about 300-400 ml of the liquid into a smaller saucepan.

You'll see in the upcoming steps that I reduced it to about 1/3 by boiling, added a teaspoon of cornstarch and finally poured it back into the skillet to get a nice, shiny and thick sauce.

Add sun-dried tomatoes, capers, olives and thyme and cook for 5 minutes.

Reduce excess liquid (see step 7.) to 1/3 by boiling, stir in a teaspoon of cornstarch and mix with a small whisk until there are no lumps left, simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Finely chop the rest of the herbs and slice the susage.

Place the sausage slices on a plate and microwave for 30 seconds at 800 Watts until crispy,

Pour the thickened sauce and the cream into the skillet, bring it to boil and pull off the heat.

Stir in chopped herbs, add roasted tomatoes and sausage chips on top and enjoy!

As this is an amazingly flavorful ragout with a creamy sauce I suggest to serve it with something with a simple taste that would soak up the sauce like rice, pasta, polenta or mashed potatoes.