Editors’ Note: In How to Cook Everything: Bittman Takes on America’s Chefs, “Every recipe challenge presents a chef’s special dish followed by Bittman’s more accessible interpretation.”
This is Mark Bittman's entry in the "Poultry in Napa" challenge. To See Chef Gary Danko's entry for the same challenge, please see the recipe for Grilled Quail with Bitter Greens Salad.
I actually cooked this in a skillet over a grill, since Gary already had the grill going for his quail, but it’s truly a stovetop dish. Like Gary, I concentrated on the flavors of the California wine country and, like him, I benefited from local produce, using olives, olive oil, wine, and walnuts—all from Villa Mille Rose (see Notes). Of course, these are ingredients you can find anywhere these days, so the recipe is easily replicated.
Yield : 4 servings
Cooking Time : 45 Minutes
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 (3- to 4-pound) chicken, cut up into serving pieces, for sautéing
- Salt and black pepper
- 2 cups white wine
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 cup green olives, the flesh lightly cracked with the side of a knife
- 1 lemon, thinly sliced, seeds picked out
- ½ cup broken walnuts
- ¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley or tarragon leaves
Directions
1. Put the oil in a deep skillet or casserole, preferably non-stick; turn the heat to medium-high and wait a minute or so, until the oil is hot. Add the chicken, skin sides down, and brown it well, rotating and turning the pieces as necessary; the process will take 10 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper as it cooks.
2. With the skin sides up, add the wine, balsamic vinegar, and olives. Adjust the heat so the mixture simmers vigorously and cook until the chicken is almost done, another 10 to 15 minutes.
3. When the chicken is almost done, add the sliced lemon to the mix and cook 2 to 3 minutes more. Arrange the chicken and lemon on a platter and stir the walnuts into the sauce; taste and adjust seasoning, then spoon the sauce over the chicken, along with the parsley or tarragon. Serve hot.
Notes
Cooking in Napa:
The day after Gary and I cooked in his restaurant kitchen in San Francisco, we traveled together to Napa. It was a late fall day, and a spectacular one: The view of the bay was clear, and when we turned inland, the vineyards, with the harvest just completed, were sparkling with dew. Gardens were filled with November produce and we found persimmons, figs, squash of all kinds, just-cured olives, just-pressed olive oil, walnuts, and more.
Our ultimate destination was Maria Manetti’s Tuscan-style estate in Napa Valley, which she calls Villa Mille Rose—the villa of a thousand roses—and, there too, the November harvest was impressive. The four dishes we cooked there—his quail, my chicken, and the persimmon recipes—relied almost entirely on local products, including the birds (from nearby Sonoma), lemons, parsley, olive oil, even vinegar. The walnuts, figs, pomegranates, and persimmons were all from Maria’s trees (the olive oil and vinegar were also hers, but produced earlier). We cooked the birds on a grill in Maria’s huge kitchen fireplace, a real treat.
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