How to Make Mediterranean Chicken

One of the all time favorite recipes from Sweet Edition is called Mediterranean chicken and it incorporates two actual flavors, salt and sweet, it is a savory sweet dish and you are going to really love it if you have not already tasted sweet edition. We use this a lot in our catering it is very, very simple to make. But first of all, I am going to show you something because I am going to have to chop some parsley. It is very, very important to have a very sharp knife and if you have not worked with the steel before, please do not be intimidated, they are very, very simple to use.

What you are going to do is take the blade of the knife and obviously angle it and I will try to get this angled so you can see. But angle your blade about 20 degrees off the steel, you are going hold your knife above the bolster right here so this is really how you actually should maneuver and cut your vegetables and anything you are utilizing in terms of dicing, makes it very, very easy.

So I am doing at 20-degree and I am going to just swipe it down and then swipe at the same angle the other side. The reason this is there and the reason you should have a very long steel is because if you have a very long knife you need to have this protection, okay? Some people get very short steels and have very long knives and they can run into a lot of problems so we would not want that to happen. But I am just going to quickly sharpen my knife, very simple, and what this does, it actually homes the blade. And that should do it. We should get ready to go with the parsley.

Now as I mentioned, this is a very, very simple recipe and it is so flavorful. You will not believe the way your kitchen is going to smell when you are done with this. We only need a little bit of parsley. And again, it is another colorful great dish. What I like to do is I just kind of skim the leaves or the tips off and set those aside. If it’s got any really bad or extended stalks, you might want to take those off but these look pretty good. So, I am going to take these and roll this up. We are going to give it a quick coarse chop not to worry about, again this is a very almost like a rustic really rustic and wonderful dish.

A nice sharp knife, makes every job in the kitchen a lot easier. If your knives are not sharp, you are really going to have a hard time. That is one of the things I would say is truly invest in a very sharp knife. I am just going to run this through again. I do not know if you also know or have heard about how to store your parsley, a lot of chefs used parsley as a garnish. One of the things we do at Sweet Edition is if you actually take this parsley, you can actually dry it, you can actually squeeze it out in a paper towel and do that a couple of times and then store it in an airtight plastic container or in a baggie and you can use that for at least two to three weeks. It is amazing and it is a perfect ready bright green garnish. Okay, I think we are done with that, very nice.

Now, you heard about a dump cake, well get ready for this because this is exactly what this is all about and it is about using your hands too so do not be afraid or intimidated. We are going to have to first prickly chop up some garlic. The best way to chop up garlic when you have a lot of garlic to utilize and there is a lot of garlic in this dish and it makes it really tasty. You have to like garlic though but it mellows because it is going to be cooked and actually it is going to marinated first and then cooked. What you are going to do is you have to turn on your food processor and keep it on. If you place the garlic in the bowl of the food processor, there is going to be a problem. What will happen is it will spin to the side and you actually will not be able to get all that really fine minced garlic but if you turn your food processor on, you will see what happens. It just bounces around and then it is finely minced.

And when it stops bouncing around, you know you have got minced garlic. My years in the kitchen and also doing this from culinary school, we used to make lots and lots of garlic and I know Sweet Edition does the same thing, they chop it all up ahead of time and it can be held for a couple of days which is really nice. So, what we are going to do is we are going to take this and put this is in our bow. I am going to get myself situated a little bit better and we are more organized so that you can see this. And actually, I am going to put this stock on and I am going to lay this beautiful chicken breast, skin on, you want that. I am going to use the “f “ for fat but you want to keep the fat on the chicken, the skin on the chicken because it really adds to the dish. And we are placing the chicken right in the bowl here and not to worry because I am not going to cross contaminate so we are going to start dumping all of our process and all of our product in here, there goes the garlic, look at that garlic.

No, when you are serving this you might want to bring some Listerine, no I am teasing. It will really be great and everybody is going to enjoy it. You know what, this is one of those recipes you look at and you say, “That cannot be, how can that possibly be?” But everybody wants this recipe and now you will actually have it. So, we have got the garlic in here. We are going to add these beautiful green pimiento olives. Those just go dump right in. We have got capers, I just love capers, that briny flavor of the capers, it adds a burst of flavor so you have got those two salty ingredients. Now, we have got pungent garlic, now we are going to add the herbes de provence, these are wonderful herbs. Now, if you do not have these herbs, provide a variety. Again, it is Mediterranean, it is Mediterranean chicken think about it. It is basil, it is thyme, it is lavender, whatever you have on hand is perfect.

Okay so now, we have got all these wonderful sort of savory ingredients and we are going to add the vinegar because this is the last of our sort of acidic or the savory part of this. Now, we are going to add the sweetness. Now here, we go with the brown sugar, brown sugar in chicken? Trust me, you are going to love this. And now we add prune, these are dried plump prunes. Actually when they marinade overnight, you are going to see that this becomes beautiful, that sweet and savory. We will have the last final touch here some bay leaves, that is going to add another tick. And look at the layers, how many layers do we have here? I am going to give a bit a quick stir. I hope you do not mind but I cannot resist, I have been known to play with my food even as an adult so I am just going to get in here because I encourage you to play with your food. And look at that oh fabulous! The smell is just wonderful and when the heat from the oven hits this it is going to be even be better.

And now, the last ingredient we are going to add is olive oil. And I am just going to drizzle that over the top, and that is our fat. So, with this being done we will give it another quick toss alright and we are going to take it here to this dish and I am just going to dump it right into our baking dish. Now, if you are planning on serving this the recommendation is to not serve it right away. You could do that but really it benefits from actual marinade and a good 24-hour marinade is terrific. So, I am taking of that wonderful I want to get everything oh there is that garlic, the capers. I getting rid of that down there and then I am going to sprinkle it with some parsley. Beautiful! Okay now, this is going to marinade as I mentioned at least 24 hours if you let it marinade for 48 that is even better. We are going to stick this away in the refrigerator with a saran wrap and then tomorrow we are going to cook it off. The best part of this if you have the chance to let this marinate it is terrific, if you do not you need to put it in the oven right away, do so. It is going go in your oven at 350 degrees for approximately about 50 minutes to an hour. And I am going to place this in the oven right now.

By the smell of this kitchen, I can tell the Mediterranean chicken is ready. Oh look at this! This is just fabulous! Oh and it smells delicious! It is bubbling and piping hot just the way I like it. Very nice and I think if you noticed the prunes actually when we put them in were seemed to be a little bit drier but look how they plumped up nicely. Everything basically stayed exactly the same. Now, I am going to plate this and what we did is we actually are going to showcase this on this beautiful cream colored platter with the background of the silver platter and you are going to see how spectacular this is. Now, this dish is wonderful because it can be actually prepared ahead and kept in the refrigerator until you want to use it or you can actually serve it hot. But a lot of times we serve this as I said on the buffet and goes over so quickly, everybody loves it. Room temperatures, believe it or not it is a great picnic food. Sweet Edition has used this on picnics as well and if you want to you can use just chicken breasts which make a really, really nice easy so you do not have to use a fork or so. I am going to plate the prunes, the olives, all of these wonderful herbs, everything is going on this. Look at this, this is gorgeous. And I am getting hungry. Very simple, I think this truly speaks of all the wonderful Mediterranean flavors that that region has to offer.

And when you taste that sweet and that savory remember we had vinegar and the capers, it is going to just make your mouth go, it is going to make your mouth sing, it is going to go wild, it is going to be happy mouth, we like happy mouths. And as I said I think you saw how quickly and easy we put this together. So, I am such a frugal cook I get every last bit out of here. Now, I am going to put this down and our last little garnish on our Mediterranean chicken is a wonderful up strikes of time. And I think it is time to eat. I hope you enjoy this. I am sure you will and I think you will see how easy it is.