Braised Mediterranean Chicken with Red Currants & Passito di Pantelleria

Che buon odore!  Stai cucinando col Marsala, Mommy?  (What a good odor!  Are you cooking with Marsala, Mommy?)

My son greeted me with this surprising question as soon as he opened the door to the house.  I was pleasantly surprised that he can already understand the ingredients I use in cooking with a mere whiff of it.   He loves my chicken cooked with Marsala wine and his ideal chicken recipe is my Lemony Chicken Marsala. 

He peered in the pan and saw the red currants, tomatoes, olives and lemon cooking with the chicken.   I told him that this time I was using another kind of wine.  Passito di Pantelleria. 

Evviva!  Sara' buono!  (Great!  It will good!)

Chicken, the thighs especially, is a big part of my cooking.  My son loves it and will even give up pizza at times to have a good chicken dish.  From such a pizza lover, that is something.  So that passes me the responsibility to whip up good chicken dishes as frequently as I could.  

Whenever I don't have an exact recipe to follow, I go for the Mediterranean blend.  It is one thing that my husband and I agree on in cooking because of its use of simple and fresh ingredients available to us.   Most importantly, it's very healthy.  Whatever I have in the kitchen, whether it's fish or meat, I usually put together a handful of fresh tomatoes, fresh herbs, olives, lemon and sometimes sun-dried tomatoes & capers when I want an extra strong flavor. 

I had a punnet of fresh red currants in the fridge that I didn't know what to do with. I took them out and scattered them on chicken.  It was a beautiful, colorful dish with splashes of brown, green, yellow, orange & red and the smell of the Passito di Pantelleria was so inviting.  

Have a good weekend!

13 May 20102 ERRATUM:  The CRANBERRIES got lost in translation.  I just re-checked and they are actually RED CURRANTS!   I changed everything pertaining to cranberries and put the correct name of the fruit .   Sorry for this!

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Braised Mediterranean Chicken with Red Currants & Passito di Pantelleria

Ingredients:
Serves 2

• 2 chicken thighs
• 1/2 lemon, sliced + a couple of slices for garnishing when serving)
• 1/2 cup Passito di Pantelleria (can be substituted with Marsala wine or any similar straw wine.)
• 50 g. fresh red currants + garnishing when serving
• 8 olives (I used Gaeta olives.)
• 1 garlic, squashed with a garlic press or minced
• cherry tomatoes, amount depends on you
• 4 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped coarsely
• sprigs fresh thyme + a twig for garnishing when serving
• mild paprika
• salt & pepper
• extra virgin olive oil

1. Make a couple of slashes on the side of the chicken with the skin to cook the inner part better.
2. Rub chicken with crushed garlic, paprika, salt & pepper.  Leave for 15 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
4. In a cast iron pan, put some extra virgin olive oil and warm it up on the stove with medium flame.   Cook chicken with skin side down and brown, about 10 minutes.  Flip to cook the other side.  
5. Pour the Passito di Pantelleria and put up fire until alcohol evaporates.
6. Add lemon slices, fresh tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, thyme, olives, cranberries.  Cook for 5 minutes together.  Pour the sauce on the chicken and other ingredients while cooking.
7. Transfer pan to the pre-heated oven.  Cook for 45 minutes or until chicken turns golden brown.  While cooking, pour the sauce on the chicken. 

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