All's well that ends well: Chicken thighs with spicy chickpeas

You know that Annalena does this occasionally - a show of hands event.  How many of you have ever gone to the store to buy something, thought you bought it, and then come home and found you had something else?

Honest answers now, ragazzi:  yes, just about unanimity.  Darlings, we are all busy, we are all preoccupied, and sometimes, well, things start happening in our bodies that compel us to get out as fast as possible, if you know what Annalena means.  So, she didn't look very closely when she was buying the chicken for this dish, which called for 3 pounds of chicken thighs, with skin, on the bone.

Instead, Annalena came home with three pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.  OH.  That is what the B/S on the package meant (it did indeed say that.  Annalena swears by this).    So, what to do?  Do you go out again, and buy more chicken, hope that you can figure out a way to use the wrong thing, or make do?

Of course, by now you know the answer, and this turned out to be a good thing.

See, in reviewing nutritional information on chicken thighs, Annalena learned that there are 40 more calories - PER THIGH - when they have their skin on them.  WOW.  So, while Annalena is not going to deny anyone his or her right to a nice, crispy skinned piece of pan fried or oven fried chicken,  this dish has so much else going on in it, that the lack of skin was not an issue. She did have to make modifications for the dish, and did so, and it works.  And now, she shares it with you.

As you will not be using chicken with bones and skin, Annalena suggests you start with two pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.  They will be depressing looking:  dark meat, flat out, a bit messy.  Stick with it, comrade.  If you have the chance, sprinkle them with salt and let them dry overnight in the fridge.  If not, salt them anyway, and also, before the salting step, get them as dry as possible.

Chop up one medium sized onion nice and fine, and do the same thing to two cloves of garlic.  You are also going to need 3 cups of cooked chickpeas.  Annalena's recipe called for two cans.  PLEASE KINDERN.  If you know nothing yet, you know that Annalena wants you to cook those chickpeas yourself.  And you can, and you should.  But if you must... drain two cans of chickpeas and don't tell Annalena you did it (when you cook them  yourself, you can control the texture.  Annalena always finds canned chickpeas mushy).

Finally, you need a quarter cup of tomato paste, and a half a cup of chicken stock, and... now bear with Annalena here:  harissa.  This is a wonderful, WONDERFUL African hot paste, sort of like tomato paste with a VERY VERY VERY big kick.  How big a kick?  Well, the recipe calls for 1/4 cup.  Uh, no.  At least not for Annalena.  If she had used the full amount called for, she would have been on fire.  Control this, depending on how much you like hot food, and how hot your paste is.  And if you don't have harissa, substitute something else with a tomato base.

Let's cook.  Turn the oven to 425.  Then, heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a pan (if you were using the full thighs, you'd use one tablespoon, because of the fat that would render out).  When the oil is hot, sear the chicken on both sides, until you have a nice color.  It won't take long.  Put that aside, and add the onion and garlic, and saute' until the onion loses its transparency and goes translucent.  Toss in the tomato paste, and stir it around fast, for about a minute.  It's burning here, and that's a good thing, because next, you're adding the chicken stock and the hot sauce, and stirring everything together before you throw in  your chickpeas (you should have about 3 cups).  Bring this to a simmer, and then put the chicken on top of the beans, put the whole pan in the oven, and leave it alone for 20 minutes - 30 if you use whole thighs.

And you're done.  You should plan on some lemon to squirt over this, and also some very,   VERY bland starch.  Maybe amaranth or quinoa or couscous.

Annalena bets this becomes a standard in your house, especially if you like hot food. And if you're not a chicken eater, well, she found a similar recipe today, calling for firm, white fish.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.