It all started with an over zealous tomato buying trip to the Farmer's Market. Husband is not a big fan of the mighty tomato - crazy, I know - so having purchased a dozen of them was, perhaps, foolhardy. They were getting dark and squishy in our fridge but there was no way I was tossing them out, so in my search for a new chicken recipe, I looked for ones that included tomatoes. I could not have found a more perfect solution.
It's a French recipe, called Poulet Saute Au Vinaigre, which, funnily enough, according to my Mac's dashboard translator, means Chicken Jumps to the Vinegar. Whether or not that is the most accurate translation, I think we can all agree that it's the one we shall use. This is what you need:
That's it! You gotta love such a simple meal. So here we go. Chop the tomatoes - I should mention, the riper they are the better, so this is a great recipe for when like us, you find yourself with a surplus that's at risk of going bad. So yeah, chop them up.
No need to be precise here, just chop. Then, take a good chunk of the butter and melt it in a medium sized sauce pan - ok, another aside - if you don't have good quality pots and pans, you might want to skip this recipe. The very nature of it means that the pan WILL BURN on the bottom. If you have a good quality pan, no big deal, if it's a cheap one, it may never recover!
Anyway, melt yo' butta.
Keep it on medium to high heat, melt it all, and then pop in your chicken - breasts are the best cut to use. Keep a pair of tongs close by and push the chicken around every couple of minutes, until they are browned nicely on both sides.
Then toss in your chopped up tomatoes.
This is the part that takes the longest - you have to wait for the tomatoes to release all their juices, and then reduce. You want them to turn into a thick, dark, sticky sauce. Keep the heat at medium to high, and give it a stir fairly frequently. I have found that this takes about an hour.
This is what you should have in the end.
Now, add about a cup of red vine vinegar. You have to stir it in and, again, reduce it, this time to about half. The vinegar reduces much more quickly than the tomatoes.
Once the vinegar is reduced, add a cup of chicken broth.
Again, reduce, but this time, until you have a sauce consistency that you like - I like mine to be still pretty saucy since I serve it over plain rice.
Finally, add another chunk of butter - this IS a French recipe after all! This makes the sauce a bit slicker and creamier.
Take it off the heat and now you're done! Like I said, I serve mine with rice, but whatever you like.
The result is a rich, delicious meal, made with whole ingredients. It takes a while but it super easy to make. Enjoy!
Till next time!
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