The Cunning Whisk

I love Italian food. A fact that was not hindered by my working at an authentic Italian restaurant last year. I was just the baker, so I didn’t really learn a lot of how the main dishes were cooked. This is a fact I regret, but have learned to live with. Until, that is, someone gave us a cast iron dutch oven for a wedding present. *insert heavenly choirs*

I HAD to find a good recipe for chicken cacciatore. Unfortunately, every recipe I looked at seemed ever-so-slightly off to me. My old boss mentioned sending me the recipe, but I just couldn’t wait. So, kitchen witch that I am, I sat down with a blank piece of paper and started writing out a recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 c. Marsala wine
During the Middle Ages physicians prescribed carrots for all sorts of ills including syphillis and dog bites.
• 1 c. water
• 2 tsp. chicken bouillon
• 8 pcs. dark meat chicken
• 1 shallot
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 4 russet potatoes
• 4 carrots
• 28 oz. diced tomatoes
• 6 oz. tomato paste
• 1/2 c. butter, unsalted
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves
Sicilians believe that young fairies, taking the form of snakes, lie amongst branches of rosemary.
• 1 Tbsp dried rosemary
• 1 Tbsp. dried basil
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 & 1/2 tsp. garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 & 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. paprika

Directions:
Wash and thoroughly pat chicken dry. In a large zippered bag, combine flour, 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt, salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper and paprika. Insert chicken, zip and shake until completely coated. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Brown chicken on all sides, 4 pieces at a time. If you need to, add 2 more tablespoons of butter before browning second batch.

After removing chicken, deglaze pan with Marsala. Make sure you scrape the bottom well. Add in water, chicken bouillon and all herbs and seasonings. Finely mince or grate garlic and mix it into sauce. Stir n tomato paste and diced tomatoes. Quarter potatoes and carrots, finely slice the shallot and julienne the yellow pepper. Add to pot.

Mix thoroughly and return chicken to pot. Poke and prod it with your spoon until all chicken pieces are submerged. Slice up remaining butter on top. Cover and keep on medium heat for 20 minutes. Rearrange pot contents, still keeping chicken submerged, and cook on medium-low for another 25 mintes or until chicken is completely done. Fish out bay leaves.

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As you may have noticed, I’ve been on a bit of a soup kick lately. Now, chili isn’t really soup, but I consider it to be close enough. Of course, a gentleman once told me that close is kind of like kissing your sister: It feels nice, but it don’t mean anything.

This chili is an amalgamation of several recipes. It’s part Paula Deen, part various other recipes I found scattered about. Most of it was common sense. The spices really took some work, however. In the end, I opened up Excel and made a list of every spice in all the recipes. Then I pulled some things down from my cabinets and started playing with combinations. I think the final result works well, though.

You could definitely go vegetarian with this. Replace the chicken broth with vegetable stock. Either substitute ground tofu for the turkey or simply add in a pound of dried kidney beans and maybe a 1/2 cup of chopped celery. Of course, then you would have to call it “Three Bean Chili.”

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. dried Navy beans
• 1/2 lb. dried Great Northern beans
• 4 c. chicken broth
• 1 c. water
• 4 Tbsp. butter
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 lb. ground turkey
• 1/2 c. fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp. white pepper
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tomatillos, finely diced
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 lg. yellow onion, finely chopped
• 4 oz. green chiles, finely chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme

Directions:
Pick over beans and rinse well. Put beans in a large pot. Cover with about 8 cups of cool water and both bay leaves. Bring to a rapid boil for two minutes, then cut heat to low, cover and let simmer for an hour.

Drain beans and bay leaves well. Replace pot on stove and empty in chicken broth and 1 cup of water. Turn heat up to medium and let it cook uncovered while you preform the next several steps.

Here is where our preparations may vary. I have a Slap-Chop. I love it. I don’t normally use it unless I really want to pulverize something, or unless it’s an onion. I keep my onions in the freezer because it cuts the amount of fumes in my eyes and it also makes finely mincing it easier. When I make White Bean Chili, I pulverize the onion, and also re-chop the canned chiles. I like the texture. Very finely hand chopping the onion and using the canned chiles as-is won’t change the flavor one bit.

Mince the garlic, onion and chiles. Also, dice the tomatillos rather small. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat so it doesn’t burn. Sauté the onions, chiles and tomatillos, adding garlic as the onions begin to turn translucent. Garlic burns pretty easily, so keep your eyes open. Add sautéed mixture to pot and reuse the pan to cook the ground turkey. Stir the turkey constantly to keep the chunks very small.

After adding the turkey to the pot, pour a little bit of the stock from the pot into the pan and deglaze if necessary. Return to pot and add in all remaining ingredients except cilantro. Lower the heat on the pot to simmer and cook covered, stirring infrequently, for at least an hour.

Remove a large ladle full of the chili and either mash all the beans heartily with a fork or puree in a food processor. Add this back to the pot, stirring into the whole thoroughly to thicken the liquid. Cook for another half hour. Fish out the bay leaves.

Before serving, roughly chop cilantro for garnish.

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