Alright, so I decided to take a culinary tour of the Mediterranean. I was going to go to Spain, Italy, France, Greece, the French Riviera. I mean the beaches are supposed to oh.
Anyway, there’s my problem, no cash. So, here’s what I settled for, this beautiful Mediterranean chicken dish that you are going to just love. It is incredibly flavorful and it starts with 6 chicken thighs. I got some pepper dew, this are red cherry peppers. Any peppers going to work, any little cherry pepper will work in the supermarket, but if you can find the pepper dew, try to get them. That’s four cloves of fresh garlic. I get about third cup of nice green calamine olives that have been pitted. I have a jar, those are fourteen ounce jar of artichoke hearts. And this Italian pepperinchini. Alright, those have been sliced. And you’ll notice I kept the vinegar that they came in, that’s part of this dish. Now, I’m going to explain a little option you have later. That was some hot Italian sausage. And one onion, sliced up.
So the first prep I want you to do, is I want you to stuff this pepper dew. They say they’re mild, but they actually are a little spicy. They’re sweet. Really, really deep intense flavor, I just love this. Now, again, if you just have to buy a regular cherry peppers and stuff those in supermarkets, that’s going to work beautifully. But this is a real nice product. Alright, so just take a little piece of your hot Italian sausage. Make a little tube out of it and just put it right in there. You don’t want any air pockets, so make sure you push in really nice and deep. Alright, and I also want you to over stuff them by a little bit. Because what will happen when that sausage is cook, as you know, it will shrink up a little bit. So there we go. So I have 18 of those and I get three peppers to garnish each thigh.
We’re going to season our thighs here. That was black pepper, I put in a tablespoon of black pepper, seems like a lot but this is a really spicy, intense dish. I got some cumin. Some salt and some olive oil. Okay. And you're going to take that black pepper, that cumin, that salt and that olive oil and you're just going to use your tong and spread it around evenly. Make sure they’re all coated perfectly. And in the meantime, put your casserole on the stove. Your Dutch oven, whatever you want to use, something that has a nice lid to it. Because this will going to go on the oven when we’re done.
Now, I want you to get that on high. Couple of tablespoons of olive oil and I want you to sear those chicken thighs. Skin side down. Alright, skin side down. And I'm going to go probably 5-6 minutes on medium high until I have a beautiful brown crust on those skins. Okay. Then I’m going to turn them over and give the other side just a minute to sear. But again, I want to watch your turn too early, I want you to see that. I’m such a tease. I want you to have them nice and golden like that. Once those are seared on both sides, you’re going to pull them out. Put them right back in the bowl where they came from.
Dump your onions into the pot. Again, there should be enough olive oil in there to sauté those. If it looks a little dry, put another splash in. And cook those onions, put a little pinch of salt in there. As you know that draws up a little of the water. So I want you to cook those onions until they start to caramelize about 5-6 minutes, you’ll see it’ll get a little brown color on them.
Alright, turn the heat down to medium and dump in your four garlic cloves. Now again, I crushed that. And the only way to screw most of these dishes I show you is to burn the garlic. So, we’re going to go quick here, we’re going to put in a half a teaspoon of hot pepper, the top shnell. A good rounded tablespoon of that herb de provence. So I like some dry herb at this point and we’re going to garnish with the same types of herbs only on the fresh state later. So just give that maybe 30 seconds sizzle, again we don’t want to cook that garlic too much. And I’m going to add my cup of pepperinchini and the juice. So that juice is a really spicy vinegary brine. And to me that’s what makes this dish. If you want to have it less intense, it’s still going to be delicious. But if you want it less hot, less intense, drain those, don’t put the juice in and you just make up the difference with chicken stock. So there we go.
The heat is turned off, alright. Heats off. Go ahead and add your chicken. Alright, skin side up. I guess it wouldn’t really matter, but it looks better in camera. Alright, put your 6 chicken thighs back in there. Whatever juice leaked, pour it back in. And then take you chicken stock, and I don’t want you to cover this, but I want you to get close. I want you to cover them, well not cover, drizzle it in until you’re just up to the skin, just about perfect.
And then, in go the rest of the ingredients. Your artichoke hearts, just get sprinkled and portioned around there. Your olives, you’re going to throw those in. Again, I have this just pitted. And our pepper are going to sit right on top, and those peppers are basically kind of roast and steamed on top of this bubbling goodness and it is going to be incredibly, incredibly flavorful.
Turn the heat back on, and I want you to cover it and pop it in the oven when you see a few little bubbles starting to break to the surface. So you’re going to bring this back up to temperature in the oven for 1 hour at 350.
Alright, and we are ready to dish that beautiful thing. I'm going to give two thighs a portion, and I do want to cool down just slightly. Okay. Something that is that intense flavor especially something that has a vinaigrette from those peppers. You don’t want it boiling, boiling hot. Well actually too intense and too sharp. But if you let it come down to temperature little bit, you really going to taste all the flavors. It’s going to be incredible.
Alright, I top this with fresh basil, oregano and margarine. Anyway, I cannot wait to dig into this. This just has the whole range of flavors that is the reason people love Mediterranean foods so much, it’s that hot sweet sour little bit salty, brininess from the olives and the creaminess of the artichoke hearts and the fresh herbs on top. Just doesn’t get any better than this, so I really hope you give this a try and enjoy.
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