Ever since I saw a mouth-watering photograph of pastitsio, I’ve been more than a little preoccupied with Greek cooking. I was trolling Recipezaar for ideas and stumbled across this incredible recipe for chicken pieces marianted in lemon juice and braised in a rich tomato sauce with white wine, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves.
Credit: John Carrington/Savannah Daily News
The recipe’s author, ”evelyn/athens,” is an accomplished cooking teacher in Greece who has almost 1,400 recipes posted to the site. I trust this one is solid, and hope to give it a shot later this week.
-1 (3 lb.) whole chicken, quartered
-1/4 c. fresh lemon juice
-1 small dried red chili
-1/2 tsp. ground allspice
-1/2 tsp. oregano, crumbled
-1 small cinnamon stick
-1 bay leaf
-3 peppercorns
-2 whole cloves
-1 (1 1/2 lb) can whole tomatoes, drained and chopped
-1/2 c. water
-1/8 c. tomato paste
-1/4 c. dry white wine
-scant 1/4 c. olive oil
-1 Tbsp. butter
1. Arrange chicken in single layer in baking dish. Cover with lemon juice and salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour, turning occasionally.
2. Combine all the remaining ingredients in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally, 40 minutes.
3. Heat oil with butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Drain chicken and pat dry; brown on all sides. Return to baking dish.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F.
5. Pour sauce over chicken, cover with foil. Bake until chicken is tender, about 40 minutes.
6. Discard spices and serve with buttered pasta, such as penne or rigatoni, or steamed rice.
Note: I’ve seen other recipes that include 1 choped onion, a potentially nice addition.
Again, this looks fabulous – did you end up making it? How was it?
I agree, it sounds so good. I haven’t made it yet, unfortunately, because I still have a ton of pastitisio sauce left, which I feel is kind of similar but made with meat instead of poultry. If you try it, please let us know how it is! It got tons of good reviews on allrecipes.com.