Chicken and Grapes
Ingredients
- 1 T olive oil
- 1 T butter
- chicken pieces (4 legs or 2 breasts or several tenders)
- 1/2 t lemon zest (to taste)
- 1/2 t ground white pepper (to taste)
- 1/2 t Creole seasoning (to taste)
- 1/4 c chicken broth
- 20 green grapes
- 120 g pasta
- 1/4 c chicken broth
- 1/4 c double cream (or use broth instead)
- 1/4 t lemon zest
- 1/4 t ground white pepper
- arrowroot (for slurry for thickening, optional (or use cornstarch))
Method
Heat up the olive oil and butter in a skillet. The stove should be set between "Medium" and "High." Keep in mind, this is a pretty hot setting. We're just going to brown the chicken, then finish cooking it in the oven.
If you're using full de-boned chicken breasts, you'll want to pound them down with the flat side of a meat mallet to thin them out. With the tender pieces, they're ready to go. Sprinkle lemon zest and white pepper on one side of the chicken. Sprinkle the other side with Creole Seasoning.
Brown the chicken in the hot olive oil, 2-3 minutes max on each side. Heat the oven to 375F. Remove the chicken to a baking dish as the pieces are browned.
De-glaze the skillet with 2 - 4 T of chicken broth (use more if using white meat chicken parts; less if using dark meat chicken parts). Use a wooden spoon or spatula to knock loose anything that's stuck to the skillet. Pour the broth over the chicken in the baking dish and cover with foil. Place chicken in the pre-heated oven until cooked through (15-20 minutes for smaller, thinner pieces; 1.5 hours or so for whole legs).
Pull the grapes from their stems, rinse them off, then let them drain for a bit.
Once the chicken is cooked through, keep them warm in the oven, and boil some water for the pasta. When the water comes to a boil, drop in the pasta. Boil the pasta for about 7 minutes, until it's just right, and drain it.
When you de-glazed the pan, it pretty much emptied it out. Heat it up again, just to "Medium," and add 2-4 T of chicken broth (use more if using white meat chicken parts; less if using dark meat chicken parts). Add the grapes to the broth. Add 1/4 cup double cream to that. (For anyone who has issues with milk/cream, add another 1/4 cup of broth as a substitute). Sprinkle a bit of the lemon zest and white pepper into the sauce.
Remove the baking dish from the oven after cooking the chicken through, and add the pan drippings to the sauce. Bring the sauce to a slight boil, stirring it regularly, then turn the heat on the burner down to LOW. You may want to thicken the sauce a bit at this point with a corn starch or arrowroot slurry.
Toss the drained pasta with the sauce, top with the chicken, and serve!
Notes
You'll want to pick up some good French bread or baguette bread at the grocery. This dinner's sauce needs good bread to soak it up.
SJ Note 11 Sept 2009: We tried this as originally written, with the wine, but the wine we used was not a good one, so it made the dish taste off. If we do it again, we'll use broth, as I've written it up here. It was also really liquidy at the end, so I've reduced some of the liquid amounts, and changed the cream to double cream. You can use lemon pepper in place of the lemon zest and white pepper, if you want.
SJ Note 9 Dec 2011: We tried this with wine again, though wine we knew to be good. The chicken, sauce, and pasta was decent enough, but the grapes were just really weird. I've decided to strike this recipe and just use one of our other creamy pasta recipes when we want something like this, and if we're moved to add something green, we'll toss in some broccoli.