Braised Chicken Garnished with Green Olives and Onions (p. 421)

So, this was actually supposed to be braised rabbit, which is why I've held off on cooking it for so long. After lots of going back and forth, Matt (and the cookbook itself) convinced me that it was okay for me to substitute chicken for the rabbit because a) rabbit is hard to find and b) rabbit is super extra expensive. Fresh Market sells it, but only frozen, and it's $30 - $40 for one whole rabbit. I have three rabbit recipes, so that starts adding up to be way too costly.

So, braised chicken. Delicious braised chicken.

The only lengthy part of this recipe is that the chicken needs to marinate for several hours. I started mine yesterday morning in a marinade of sherry (the recipe called for dry white wine, but now that I'm with child, cooking sherry is about the only similar thing I had around the house, and it feels crazy to buy wine and then not be able to drink it), olive oil, minced parsley, salt, dried thyme, a bay leaf, and a combination of herbs that came from my CSA last week. I tossed this in a tupperware in the fridge until closer to dinner time.

When you're ready to start preparing the actual dinner, brown tiny onions in olive oil, and then set them aside.

Using the same oil, brown the chicken pieces (removed from the marinade and patted dry) on both sides until they are nicely colored. Add some flour to the top of the pieces and continue cooking, distributing and browning the flour.

Put the onions back in the pan, as well as the rest of the marinade and some extra liquid (I used water, you could use wine) and bring to a boil.  The recipe says to cover and simmer for about an hour, until the meat is falling off the bone, but since I used boneless chicken that was clearly cooked by that point, I just let mine simmer until the sauce was getting thick, and then removed the chicken and onions.

To make the sauce, strain the remaining liquid to get rid of the marinade aromatics and put the leftover sauce back into a pan. Heat until thickened and then add green olives briefly, just to warm them.

Pour the sauce over the chicken and onions, and serve!

We both really enjoyed this. The chicken was tender and extremely flavorful from the marinade, and we mopped up all the sauces with bread.

chicken -- $3.87

onions -- $3.99 (about half the bag is left)

olives -- $2.50

Total Cost of Braised Chicken Garnished with Green Olives and Onions: $10.36

($2.60 per serving)