Chicken and chick peas in red wine

It is traditional to cook chicken in white wine but, for the life of me, I couldn’t locate the bottle of white wine last night so, throwing tradition to the wind, I grabbed the unopened bottle of semi-sweet red wine and cooked the chicken with it. The result was surprisingly great as the red wine gave the chicken and the sauce a deeper color that white wine would not have achieved.

And, as an inspired afterthought, I garnished my chicken stew with gremolata, a condiment made with parsley, garlic and lemon zest often associated with osso buso. The gremolata really finished off the chicken stew wonderfully.

Serves five.

Ingredients:

5 chicken leg quarters, seasoned generously with salt and pepper
3 to 4 tbsps. of butter
1 onion, roughly chopped
1/8 c. of dried rosemary (twice as much if using fresh)
juice of one orange
juice of half a lemon
1 c. of semi-sweet red wine
1 large can of chick peas (garbanzos), drained

For the gremolata:

4 tbsps. of chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tbsp. of finely minced garlic
1 tbsp. of finely chopped lemon zest
a generous pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Melt the butter in a frying pan. Brown the chicken in batches (no need to cook them through at this point) then arrange in a baking dish.

In the remaining butter, add the chopped onion and rosemary. Cook for a minute. Pour in the orange and lemon juices, then the red wine. Boil, uncovered, until the liquid is reduced by half. This is your sauce.

Pour the sauce, with the onion and rosemary, over the chicken, making sure that every piece of chicken is topped with onion and rosemary.

Add the chick peas to the chicken, distributing them as evenly as possible.

Sprinkle everything lightly (remember, the chicken legs are already seasoned) with salt and pepper.

Cover the baking dish tightly with foil. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 45 minutes.

About five minutes before the chicken is done, mix together all the ingredients for the gremolata.

Take the chicken out of the oven and peel off the foil. Sprinkle the gremolata over the chicken leg quarters and serve at once.