Chicken Zagarella!

 

This - belatedly - is the first of my holiday recipes.  Self-catering was definitely the way to go; visiting markets and small shops throughout the day, lunching somewhere nice, then coming back to cook some local food was a great policy.  We stayed in a static caravan in a campsite - the kitchen being surprisingly well equipped (though the knife was an issue as ever - I took my own knife with me but wasn't prepared to use it on the glass chopping board, I'm afraid).

 

This dish uses the local poultry - Challans black-foot chicken.  What I found interesting about this was that I didn't buy it on the market or in a specialist poultry shop but the supermarket.  Tesco et all take note:  this was a quality, local product stocked in the supermarket and offered at a good price.  

The Challans chicken is seen as a (cheaper) alternative to its more famouse Bresse cousin.  And it was good.  There's not much you can say about a piece of chicken, except that it's 'good' or 'bad'.  Bad equals plumped with water and salt, undergrown, tasteless and vapid.  Good means the bird is older (just a week or two makes a difference - after all, a single week extra is 14% older...), meatier, firmer, darker and tastier.  The bones are firmer and the taste more developed.

Assuming you can't get Challans chicken, try asking your butcher for something free-range and tasty!

The vegetables here came from the local market, the rosemary from a road-side bush and the bay... from a car park!

Chicken Zagarella
(Serves 2)
2 legs Challans blackfoot chicken (or similar 'heritage' breed free-range chicken)
Fleur-de-Sel/Sea Salt and black pepper
Olive oil and butter to fry
1/2 red pepper
1 medium onion sliced into thin rings
1 plump clove garlic
1 bay leaf
1 sprig rosemary
1 glass of dry white wine (Muscadet for preference)
2 tbsp Creme Fraiche

Season the chicken liberally with pepper and fleur-de-sel (or sea salt).  Set aside for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200° C.

Brown the chicken in a large pan in the oil and butter over a high heat.

Add the vegetables, white wine and herbs and bring to a simmer.  Put in the oven for 1/2 hour.  Remove the chicken and keep warm.  Put the remaining sauce on a high heat and reduce a little, whisking in the creme fraiche.

Serve with green beans. 

tags: france  poultry  

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