One of the other perks about them being here on a Sunday is that for the past month or so I've been having a good old fashioned Sunday dinner with our neighbors and they have spoiled me with their amazing food so with so many great people around, I got to try out a new recipe!
Chicken in an Almond-Garlic Sauce (adapted from Bon Appetit):
3/4 cup slivered almonds
4 cups cubed white bread
6 cloves of garlic
3ish cups of chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 tsp saffron (if you have it, which I did)
6 chicken legs (thigh and drumstick)
1 onion, minced
chopped parsley for garnish
salt
pepper
olive oil
The original recipe called for 4 chicken legs but since there were 5 of us, I made 6.
Heat olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat until toasted to a golden brown and then remove from the pan. Place about half of them in a food processor and save the rest for garnish.
Add the chopped bread to the pan and toast them with the garlic cloves that of course, went through my favorite kitchen tool, my garlic press. Toast everything together until the bread is a very lovely golden brown. I guess in a pinch you could use the nice croutons from the bakery section of your local grocery store but this was pretty awesome too.
So then remove the toasty bread to the food processor with the almonds. Add some salt, fresh pepper, the saffron (if using), chicken stock and wine to the food processor. A word of advice on this. Because the original recipe was smaller and because there is NEVER enough sauce, I was improvising on the sauce front. A food processor is only capable of holding so much liquid. Luckily, my trusty kitchen elf was there to help me save the sauce and the food processor. I ended up having to whisk in the wine once I transfered it to a bowl. But it was worth it.
The next time that I make this, which I definitely will, I think what I would do is actually infuse the saffron into the chicken stock on the stove before I added everything to the sauce. I feel like it would give it a more consistent color and not look so spotted like in the picture above. But just a thought if you decide to use the saffron (which I highly recommend).
In the midst of sauce madness, I found that my pug was over at the computer trying to put up the Taco Pie...me oh my! recipe.
Back to the stove though. Now you want to bust out the chickens. Leave the skins on for sure because you want to get them nice and brown on both sides, but not cooked through all the way. Then take the chicken out of the pan.
We had a very nice onion tonight and because Mom and Jen are not the biggest fan of onions, I had to saute them until very golden brown and very done. That took forever. I think at this point we had cracked the wine.
Once the onions are nice and done, you add everything back to the pan. Chicken in then cover it with the sauce. You then want to bring the sauce up to a boil, reduce the heat, pop a lid on that pan and let it work its magic.
Add a little vino, some great company, a game of catch phrase and you have the ingredients for a great plate and a great meal. I served this with rice and beautiful peas (from the frozen food section) and this is what we got!
I was really glad that I made that sixth piece of chicken because MC came hungry, everyone went back for seconds on the rice covered with gravy, and I think one person even had seconds on the peas. Overall it was a hit! I was really glad that I made the extra gravy too.
Thanks for coming by and checking it out! Have a great night!
Oh, and a very big thanks to my Mom and the Kitchen Elf for coming all the way out here to see me!
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