Monday, January 19, 2009

Baked Spiced Chicken with Cauliflower/Sunchoke Gratin by bookseller

I made a paste of olive oil, hot pepper flakes, fresh thyme and rosemary, and some minced shallot, smeared it all over some chicken thighs, and let them sit at room temp for about an hour. They went into a 450-degree oven for 20 minutes, then got splashed with a little white wine and baked another 20, and finally got scattered with some whole garlic cloves, a little chopped bacon, and a handful of Moroccan olives and cooked for yet another 20. The herbs and -- interestingly -- the flavor of the olives really permeated the chicken meat, and all the fat rendered out so the skin was thin and crisp.

On the side I had a rather PITA but extremely delicious gratin of cauliflower and jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes)cooked in cream and chicken broth with, bizarrely, curry powder, horseradish, and more fresh thyme, with sliced almonds browned on top. This was a bit of an experiment: I am doing the low-carb thing (as if all that bacon and cream didn't tip you off), and I wanted to see if jerusalem artichokes would make a decent potato substitute.

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