One positive result of unemployment is that I have been cooking a lot more than I used to. The other night, I made Tuscan Chicken Stew for dinner. It went something like this:
I bought a package of chicken thighs, a little over two pounds. The original recipe called for skinless bone-in thighs, which my grocery store did not have, so I was stuck skinning them myself. Not my favorite kitchen task. I really don’t like touching raw meat, so I used latex gloves a la Alton Brown, which made it much less gross. I coated the bottom of our cast iron dutch oven with a little olive oil, seasoned the meat, and browned it on both sides.
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While the chicken was browning, I chopped an onion and minced a few cloves of garlic. I added the chopped veggies to the dutch oven after removing the browned chicken to a platter. Let those cook a few minutes until the onion is translucent. Then, add a tablespoon of tomato paste. Stir the paste in and let the mixture continue cooking until it is well mixed and becomes a brick red color. Next, add about half a can of chicken stock to the pot to deglaze. You can substitute wine here if you like, but we aren’t big wine drinkers and generally don’t have any sitting around and ready to use in recipes, so the stock works just fine. Let it boil down until it is a bit syrupy. Then add the rest of the can of stock, a can of rinsed and drained white beans, and a can of diced tomatoes. Nestle the chicken pieces into the stew and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Then, add about eight ounces of baby spinach and simmer another minute or two until the spinach is wilted. Serve and enjoy.
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When I made this, I really was not in the mood for it. I really did not want anything tomato-y, but I had purchased the ingredients and needed to cook it before anything went bad. I was pleasantly surprised. The meal was hearty and extremely tastey. It’s chock full of veggies and lean protein, too. My only qualm with the dish is the bone-in meat. It takes a bit or work to eat when it’s in a stew. I’d say just use boneless thighs, but that would change the cooking times and the bones might add flavor to the stew that would be missed if they weren’t there.
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Wow, that does look good! Have you seen the movie Julie and Julia? If not, you must, even if you go alone. I could not stand the way Julie was portrayed but Meryl Streep as Julia was magnificient. Tammy and I saw it and then it was on my recent Berlin trip, both ways! On the return flight, Lufthansa, it was movies on demand, so I could watch it multiple times if I had been so inclined, which I wasn’t.