If you’ve been with me from the beginning (oh so long ago — February); then you’ve already read my first post about how I spent the entire day looking forward to a meal only to disappoint myself with a kitchen disaster. While I’m happy to say this adventure turned out much better; it did not turn out according to plan. I’m learning that I have to be able to go with the flow and the dinners I’m most proud of are those I created without a recipe. The meals I put together because I knew the flavors would work together. This is one of those dinners.  I was originally planning chicken with sauteed artichokes in a garlic white wine reduction. The only problem was — I was out of artichokes.
As you can see, I was in a quandary. I looked around the kitchen and saw these beautiful grape tomatoes and a zucchini from my friend’s garden. That’s when I knew I had hit gold. This was going to be much better than my plan because of the fresh spring vegetables and flavors. I called it Toulouse le Chick to be funny, if you have a better name please let me know because I haven’t had enough coffee to be really creative yet.
Ingredients:
4 brined skinless bone in chicken thighs
1/2 seasoned* flour for dredging
3 tsp bacon fat (you can substitute olive oil if you are mad at your taste buds)
3 strips cooked bacon crumbled
3 cloves minced garlic
1 T herbs de Provence
1Â C white wine
1 C Chicken Broth
1 zucchini cut into medium slice pieces
8 – 10 grape tomatoes cut in half
1 T butter
Handful of diced fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
The day before prepare a brine. I use an 8 cup container and put about 4T of powdered garlic, 3T salt, 4 whole pepper corns and 1 – 2 bay leaves. Allow the chicken to soak in this mixture at least 4 hours I typically put frozen chicken in the brine a day ahead of time and it safely thaws while absorbing flavor.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Over medium high heat in a large saute pan heat the bacon fat. Pat the chicken pieces dry and dredge through the flour. Brown each side (3 – 4 minutes per side). Add the crumbled bacon and garlic and herbs de Provence. De-glaze the pan with white wine and add chicken stock. Transfer to oven and cook un-covered for 30 – 40 minutes until internal temperature of chicken reaches 160 degrees (carryover heat will bring it up to 165)
Remove the pan from the oven**! and transfer to stove-top on medium high. Remove chicken from pan set aside and cover with foil.  Bring sauce to a boil. Add zucchini and tomatoes cook until firm tender but not overcooked. Swirl butter around pan, and add chicken back ensuring it’s warmed through. Add parsley and serve over couscous (prepare according to package directions. If you boil the liquid and put the couscous in it right before you take the chicken out of the oven everything will come together nicely)
*seasoned flour is just all purpose flour with salt and pepper to taste
**! Don’t be like the whineaux and have scars on the inside of both of your palms because you forgot the pan had been in the oven and the handle was screaming hot. As soon as you set the pan down put a towel or potholder around the handle. Trust me, you don’t want that kind of hurt!
We had a J.Lohr Chardonnay with this and it was fantastic (it’s what I used in the sauce too)
I also had the leftover for breakfast over rice and it’s even better the next day. If you don’t have couscous — rice is a great alternative. If you haven’t tried couscous — please do, it’s great for saucy meals like this.
Until next time, wine, don’t whine!
Great job! THANK YOU!