Catalan Style Chicken
Ms. Libby Calvera or my Blacksburg mom (how I used to call her) used to make this dish on special occasions. She learned how to make it since her husband, Jordi, was from Barcelona and this is a very typical dish in his hometown. Jordi past away in 2016 a few months after my college graduation and Mrs. Libby past away three months ago. I missed them so so much, but I am so thankful for all the great memories we shared. As a way to honor them and keep them close in some way, I’ve decided to recreate this dish. Mine will never be as good as Mrs. Libby’s. However, every bite of this dish takes me back to all the dinners we had together!!
I didn’t come up with this recipe myself, but I read so many recipes online and watched tons of videos. So this recipe is a compilation of all the recipes I read about. I wanted to share it with you because it is AMAZING! If you make this for your family they will definitely be impressed!
P.S: Wanna make this cooking experience even better? Play some Gypsy Kings while cooking!
Catalan Style Chicken (Pollo a la Catalana)
Ingredients:
- 4 tbsp Olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 200g Pitted prunes
- 170g Dried apricots
- 1Lb Chicken
- 3 Tomatoes
- 1 Onion
- 1/2 glass Red Blend wine
- 14.5 oz Low sodium chicken broth
- Sliced Almonds to taste
- Pepper and Salt to taste
Preparation:
1. Season the chicken with salt and Pepper. I like making little holes on my chicken with a fork and then sprinkle the salt and pepper on the entire chicken.
2. Place the chicken on a ziplock bag or cover it with some wax paper and let it sit for a couple of hours (3 hours) or overnight if you can.
3. Heat up the oil in a large pan and pop in the chicken. Fry it until it is golden.
4. Chopped the tomatoes and onion into fourths, and stir them in the pan with the chicken. Let them cook for 5 minutes or until the onion is translucent.
5. Add the cinnamon stick and the four garlic cloves. Don’t chop the garlic and don’t skip the cinnamon. Most people would be hesitant to add cinnamon to a chicken dish, but believe me, cinnamon is what gives this chicken that delicious flavor. Cook for 5 minutes more.
6. Pour the wine and let it evaporate. I used half a glass of 14 Hands Hot to Trot, which is a red blend. You can also use Pinot Grigio, Moscato or if you are feeling fancy you can go for Cognac. If you don’t have any of these alcoholic beverages at home you can substitute them for some apricot juice.
7. At this point, you can add half of the apricots and half of the prunes. The prunes and apricots will form a paste that would give the chicken so much flavor.
8. Pour the chicken broth. I only used 14.5 oz, but the idea is that you pour enough chicken broth to cover the chicken. Increase the heat and let it boil for 5 minutes and then simmer for 45 minutes. We want the chicken to be fully cooked, but not dry.
9. In a separate pan toast some sliced almonds, until they are golden brown and crunchy. Then add the almonds and leftover prunes and apricots. Cook for 3 minutes.
11. Voila! serve the chicken with some rice.
