Roquefort Hen with Mild Tapenade
T’is coldddd in Montreal! But everyone is training “sooo hard” that it has inspired me to reward you all with real wintery food! My goal is still to keep the “damages” of comfort food under control…
I wrote hen, it’s chicken. I wrote Roquefort, it is the more affordable common blue cheese, but that’s your secret! Keep your money for the snowy day…
What makes this recipe different is the way the chicken is cooked. Infallible! It beats the taste of most barbecues, minus half the free radicals…
The technique is quite simple;
-In a pan, simply lay a very thin layer of sea salt
-Add a fine layer of dried rosemary on top
-Heat this up until the rosemary’s aroma starts to sing a summer song (maybe a minute and a half?)
-Just add the chicken thighs on top of this and let it “sauté” until it turns a nice golden shade.
-When both sides have a nice tan add a little bit of water to prevent the whole thing from burning. This will also prevent the chicken from drying up. You will keep on adding water as soon as it evaporates. It will be the base of your sauce. This way you will have the great taste of barbecue with the “health benefits” of steamed cooking.
And what an aroma in your kitchen…
In this recipe, like in all my recipes, you can (you must!) change the quantities of some ingredients according to your preferences. “Guidelines” is what I should write instead of recipes.
RECIPE / GUIDELINES
• 1 lb (450g) chicken thighs (cut in bite size, wait! I have a special way to do it*)
• About 10 oz (300g) blue cheese
• A cup dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water, with the liquid
• 2 or 3 red and yellow peppers finely chopped
• 1 red onion finely chopped
• 2 or 3 belgian endives, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 lb (454g) green beans cut in 2 or 3
• Le Grand’s Mild Tapenade to taste
• Dried rosemary
• Sea salt
-Cook the chicken as I explained before
- Meanwhile in another pan, sauté the onion first, then the garlic and the red and yellow peppers
-When they start to soften add the green beans, at this point you are almost done, so don’t overcook the green beans. You want them dark green and vibrant!
-During this time your chicken has been sautéed, then steamed, you have added water and the additional water has made a sauce in which you will melt the blue cheese. No more water is needed after this point
-Mix the contents of the 2 pans in a bigger one
This is the “Big” wedding between the veggies and the meat and Oh! What a party!
The timing is important here. The whole thing should not exceed half an hour
-So now you have one larger casserole. Add the endives to the hot mixture, they will just be warmed and they will add a “soft crunchiness” to your casserole. It is important to play on different textures
-Add Le Grand’s Mild Tapenade to taste, maybe 2 Tbs (30ml) maybe more, I don’t know, you’re the Chef!
* I sauté the chicken thighs whole, when they are almost cooked I take them with tongs and I cut little pieces over the pan, its fun! I hate cutting raw chicken
