It’s for all of you, too, but especially for Mike.
Mike dutifully reads all of my posts and recipes but says he’ll never make any of them despite the fact that he’s a good cook.
I challenged myself to post a recipe that Mike COULD make if Mike CHOSE to make it. (Hint: that means it’s fast and easy!)
Crushed fennel seed.
Most of us are not going to cure our own olives. Even in Italy that’s true. But starting with good quality cured olives and seasoning them to make them unique is quite another thing.
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Many years ago, when we were living in Chicago, and had a very productive garden plot, fall “harvest” season saw lots of foods being made and preserved for the coming months. One of the ways we made use of abundant fresh herbs was to put up gallons of olives with herbs and a light vinegar brine. It was a technique I learned from a friend in Santa Fe, Joe Hoffman.
Tiny lemon wedges, about the size of an olive.
The vinegar allowed the olives to be kept for months and months without deterioration. Done right, they weren’t sour. In fact, I thought the vinegar treatment mellowed some of the bitterness that olives can have.
“Joe Hoffman’s Marinated Olives” were a staple nibble during cocktail hour for most of our dinner parties for many years.
Garlic slivers.
Our herb harvest since moving to Santa Fe hasn’t been as abundant as it was in Chicago so I haven’t made these olives in a while. What I do make is an utterly different style of marinated olive that can be prepared just a few hours before serving time. These olives will last in the refrigerator for several weeks, though not as long as Joe Hoffman’s olives.
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The original recipe, which I have since modified, came from Jo Bettoja’sIn a Roman Kitchen.
These olives pack a major flavor punch and never cease to get raves from dinner guests.
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Roman-Style Olives (Olive alla Romana)
These olives only need to marinate a few hours before serving. They will keep in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for several weeks.
When we’re in Palm Springs in the winter, surrounded by an abundance of citrus trees, I feel like citrus ought to be featured in every meal.
Being able to walk out the door and pick lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit and tangerines, and NOT doing it, seems like such a grand missed opportunity. Even if the ingredients for the rest of the meal don’t come from within a few feet of my door, the citrus fruits and herbs can.
With that in mind, and the prospect of cooking a multi-course dinner for 15 people in a kitchen that’s about 8’ x 10’ got me to thinking. Individually lemons, sage, and olives pair well with chicken so why not all of them together in the same dish?
Looking up into a lemon tree in Palm Springs
Next came the method. With fifteen people I needed at least 15 pieces of chicken. I was pretty sure that with all the other courses, one piece of chicken per person would be enough. I added a few more for good measure.
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Braising 18 pieces of chicken on the stove top would have consumed a good deal of space so I opted for the oven and a “hotel pan,” sometimes called a steam table tray. You know, those cafeteria-style rectangular pans. I have a mess of them in an array of sizes. Made of stainless steel, they’re non-reactive. You can cook and store food in them, simplifying the preparation process. Shallow roasting pans are a good substitute. Don’t use aluminum pans or other reactive materials due to the lemon juice in this dish.
To keep it simple, I decided not to brown the chicken first, but rather to do it at the end by turning up the oven. I made a marinade by buzzing the ingredients in a blender, so even that is super-easy.
A hotel pan is a great way to prepare large quantities of food
Which part of the chicken to use was never in question. I like what happens to chicken thighs with long, slow braising. Keeping the bone in adds flavor and structure so I suggest avoiding boneless thighs.
If you keep the skin on you’ll have to remove it before browning and serving the chicken because it will be rubbery from the moist heat. I usually prefer to keep the skin on as it helps keep the meat moist but the combination of low and slow cooking and a tight cover meant the effect of the skin would be marginal. Removing the skin in the beginning makes the dish even simpler to prepare. Besides, the skin is a great addition to the stock pot when making chicken stock or broth.
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I keep a zipper lock bag in my freezer into which I put chicken skin and other bits that I trim off chicken then add the contents to the stock pot with backs and wings. Skin contains a lot of fat but since it will be skimmed off at the end it’s not really a concern. The collagen in the skin, however, will greatly improve the mouthfeel of the broth. In the “old days” adding chicken feet to the stock pot served the same purpose but finding chicken feet is challenging.
A Palm Springs orange tree, in the distance, full of ripe oranges
While this dish was created in the Palm Springs winter, it works well year-round thanks to the non-stop availability of lemons. The next time you’re cooking for a crowd, give it a try and let me know what you think.
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Chicken Braised with Lemon, Sage and Olives
I created this recipe for my father-in-law’s birthday, January 2018. The lemons came from the trees outside of our house in Palm Springs. Though not essential, I prefer to put a sheet of baking parchment over the chicken before covering with aluminum foil to keep the reactive aluminum completely out of contact with the acid in the lemon juice.
Make marinade by pureeing the olive oil, lemon juice, 6 cloves garlic, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a blender.
Pour the marinade over the chicken thighs and mix well.
Marinate chicken thighs overnight in the refrigerator.
Lightly oil a non-reactive hotel pan or shallow roasting pan.
Arrange lemon slices on the bottom of the pan.
Put a sage leaf on each lemon slice.
Put a chicken thigh on each sage-topped lemon slice, reserving the marinade.
Scatter olives around the chicken.
Smash the remaining 8 garlic cloves and scatter around the chicken.
Pour the marinade over the chicken. Cover the pan tightly with foil. (If possible, cover the pan with a sheet of parchment before the aluminum foil.)
Put the chicken into a preheated 350°F oven. Cook until the chicken is nearly fall-apart tender, 90-120 minutes.
Using a turkey baster, remove most of the liquid from the pan. Put the liquid into a fat separator.
Turn the heat as high as the oven goes. Put the pan of chicken on the top rack until it takes on some color, approximately 10-15 minutes. You can also use the broiler for this, though many broilers do not have enough heated surface area to brown the contents of a large pan.
While the chicken is browning, skim the fat from the pan juices.
Carefully move the chicken thighs, with lemon slices intact, to a serving platter or individual plates.
Scatter the olives over the chicken.
Pour some of the defatted pan juices over the chicken.
Pass the remaining defatted pan juices at the table.
