Welcome to a new month of The Book Club Cookbook Cooking Crew! For the month of May (yes, I'm late-- what else is new!), Wendy over at A Day in the Life on the Farm hosted Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Each month, a new blogger hosts and chooses a book for us to make recipes inspired by the book. Please see her invitation post for more information.
I can't tell you too much about the book that we read this month because even though I got a head start in reading, I was only able to read about 50 pages. I've had this book on my bookshelf for over 10 years and I still have yet to complete it which I really want to do.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is from Columbia, so I decided to make a Latin dish. I don't know how authentic chicken and rice is to Columbia, but I chose to make this dish anyway (partly because this recipe I've been wanting to make for awhile). This chicken and rice recipe has saffron and olives, so it might also be more Spanish than Latin American influenced, not too sure. This recipe is from Martha Stewart's One Pot cookbook, which is a cookbook that I've been cooking a lot from recently!
I couldn't find Valencia rice, as recommended, so I substituted arborio rice. I noticed that the rice came out much more creamy than I expected, somewhat like a risotto, which I actually really loved. I'm also not a fan of olives, so I wasn't sure if I'd like them in this recipe or if the flavor of the olives would be too overpowering for me; the olive flavor was very subtle and I actually did eat some of the olives. If you love olives, go for it but next time I may reduce the amount of olives just a little bit.
This recipe cooks most of the time in the oven, which is nice because I can put everything away and clean up the kitchen while it's cooking. One of the things I dislike is having to do a bunch of dishes after I eat. Plus I don't like to wait to eat when my food is finished cooking, so I don't usually wash dishes before I eat if the meal is ready. Yes, bad habits, I know!
Also, please check out the wonderful bloggers below who are participating in The Book Club Cook Book Cooking Crew and see what they have created this month. You can also follow this project on social media with the hashtag #thebookclubcookbookCC. We'll be posting all of our creations to our Pinterest board. Here's the team, in alphabetical order with links to their homepages.
Chicken and Rice
from Martha Stewart's One Pot
1/2 c. dry white wine
Pinch of saffron threads
6 bone-in chicken thighs (about 6-oz each)
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 Tbs. garlic, minced
1 large tomato, chopped
2 dried bay leaves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 c. short-grain rice (Valencia or arborio)
3 c. low-sodium chicken broth
1 c. pimiento-stuffed green olives, drained (this is important)
Preheat oven to 375 F.
In a small bowl, combine wine and saffron.
Season chicken with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven or braiser, heat oil over medium-high. Add chicken, skin-side down; cook until browned, 6-7 minutes. Flip and cook 2 minutes more; transfer to a plate.
Drain all but 2 tablespoons of fat. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring often, until translucent, 4 minutes. Add tomato and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in wine-saffron mixture, bay leaves, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook until wine is nearly evaporated, 5-8 minutes.
Stir in rice, broth and olives. Nestle chicken into rice, skin-side up. Bring to a simmer, cover, and transfer to oven. Cook until liquid is absorbed and chicken is cooked through, 25-30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
Makes 6 servings
I did make it through the book, but didn't care for it. Your dish looks fabulous though. Thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of green olives in the rice! I plan to attempt to make this using cauliflower rice instead, but the dish looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteI also love the idea of your book group!
So cool!
ReplyDelete