The sweet, the tart, and a cluck: vinegar braised chicken

Many years ago, when reading one of her favorite authors, Annalena read of a classic French farmhouse dish, chicken braised in vinegar.  She made it, and really wasn't sure why it was considered part of the French classic cuisine of home cooking.  It just didn't "sing," so while she continued to be fascinated by the idea of using vinegar as a braising liquid, (after all, vinegar is just wine gone bad), she never went back to it.


Then... during one of her rituals of tearing recipes out of magazines, she found a variation.  It seemed different, for its inclusion of pork, and raisins.  Things beginning to look up here.  So, she got to work.  And it worked.  It's a good dish.  It's a fabulous dish.  And, ragazzi, it's one you could make for home, or you could make for company.  Yes, it is that good. And it makes a lot.  So , here we go. And as we go,  Annalena will tell you how to deal with differences in recipes.

To start, you need two pounds of onions:  these need to be pearl onions, or cipollines.  "Cipolline" is the Italian word for onion, but here in the US, they are a small, oval shaped onion which you can get in red or white.  Annalena suggests you use cipollines, because there's some work here, and the larger onions make it easier.  Crush four big garlic cloves, and separate them from their peel.  You will also need a half a pound of some pork product you can cube:  pancetta, slab bacon,  ventriche (which is essentially  French pancetta), whatever you can find. You need to have little chunks of stuff, and in a pinch, a piece of ham will do. Even tasso ham, although this is going to kick the spice level up, big time.

Next, 5 pounds of chicken parts.  Now, Annalena, against her judgement, used whole chickens that were cut up, which the recipe said was ok to do.  Ragazzi, it is not.  The breast meat dried out in her version of this.  It tasted good, but it was dry.  So Annalena suggests you save the breasts for the preceding recipe, and use legs and thighs for this.  On the bone, and with the skin, please.

You will also need 3/4 cup each of red wine vinegar, and balsamic vinegar.  Now, don't use the 100 year old stuff you got in trouble for buying.  This is a recipe where you can use the stuff from the supermarket.  You can mix them in one container to save space.

You also need a pint of chicken stock, and a good half cup of golden raisins. These look better, but if you have dark ones, use those.   Finally, a couple of bay leaves.

Now, we get to work.  And we begin with the pain of getting our onions ready.  Put them, whole, in a pot of boiling salted water.  Cook them for at least five minutes. This will give you firm onions (she did right that, didn't she?), but if you cook them a few minutes more, they'll be almost melting.    Drain them, and let them cool.  When they do, make a little cut at the root end, and slip them out of their skin.

Well, that's the hardest thing you'll do in this recipe.  Put them aside, and put 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a big pan, and when it's hot, add the half pound of pancetta/pork, which you will have cut into 1/4 inch pieces. Surgical technique is not required here.  Brown them.  Keep em moving to brown but not burn, and when they have good color, take the pieces out and drain the fat off of them.   Annalena's recipe said ten minutes.  Plan on less.    Now, add the onions to that pan, with the fat, and let them brown a little.  Again, it won't take long.  Add the garlic for a couple minutes.  Then move the onions and the garlic to a bowl, with the drained pancetta.

We cook the chicken now, in that flavored fat.  Salt and pepper it first, and then get it nice and brown all over.   This takes some time, and let it take its time, because once we start adding liquid, the chicken will cook, but you will get no more color.    Plan on about 15 minutes in total, and because you're using chicken with the skin on, plan on a lot of fat rendering out.

When you're done with cooking all the chicken,  move it to a plate and pour off all the fat.    For this next step, be careful. Your pan is hot, and you're working with strong acids:  you pour the vinegar right into the pan.  Annalena suggests you do it off the heat, and with your face as far away as possible.  Put the pan back on the heat, and stir while it comes to a boil.  This is getting the brown stuff off the bottom.  Add the raisins, the broth, the bayleaves, and then all the stuff you saved from the first steps. You'll need a big pan, of course, or an earthenware pot.  Cover it, lower the heat ,and walk away for at least half an hour, probably closer to 45.  Check to see if you can essentially pull the chicken off the bone with a knife.  If yes, you're done.

You can serve this as is, but it would be better if you could put all the solids aside, and let that sauce cool, so the fat comes to the top. Again, you're going to get a lot of it, and then scrape it off.    Taste the sauce, and adjust the salt, and pepper, if you like.  Re-combine the chicken and other goodies with the sauce, heat it up and...

OH,  it's so good.  The combination of the sour vinegar, the raisins, and the pancetta, just elevates this, so you won't be thinking "Oh.  Chicken again.  No, you will definitely NOT think that.  Annalena promises.

So ragazzi, wondering what's coming up?  Well, we're going to do a "one size fits all " dessert of dried fruit squares, and Annalena's new version of braciole, thanks to Marcella Hazan.

Yes, we are always working here.    Enjoy!