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Poulet au Thym Citronné
Serves 4
Ingredients
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 chicken (31/2 to 4 lbs) cut into eight pieces
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 large onions, peeled and diced
5 large cloves garlic, peeled, cut in half
1 large handful fresh lemon thyme sprigs plus 1/3 cut (loosely packed0 lemon thyme leaves
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
* Note from the kitchen: if you don’t have any lemon thyme, introduce regular tyme to lemon extract or lemon juice but the former is more intence and work your magic from that point.
Directions
Heat oil in a large heavy skilled over medium-heat until hot but not smoking. Add chicken, season with salt and pepper and brown on both sides about 5 minutes per side. The chicken should be deep golden.
Remove the chicken from the skillet and add onions and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, until onions turn deep gold on the edges, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and return the chicken to its designated place in the skillet.
Add the lemon thyme sprigs and the lemon juice, and stir well, scraping the bottom of the pan. If you have the giblets, add them, cover and cook until the chicken is tender, about 20 minutes. (Note to self: add chicken stock and/or splash of white wine, it would be criminal not to)
Stir in 2 tablespoons of the lemon thyme leaves into the chicken, cover, and continue cooking until the chicken cries uncle and is cooked through, about 10 more minutes. Remove from the heat. Remove the lemon thyme sprigs, stir in the remaining lemon thyme leaves, and taste for seasoning. Let sit, covered, for about 10 minutes before serving.
Now about that wine…
As I mentioned earlier, I had the fortunate good luck to discover two great wines from Argentina. Alberti 154 wines (Sergio Montiel, winemaker) and Fincas Don Martino owned by Jorge Cardozo and Huge Martino (Pablo Durigutti, winemaker.)
Both had some outstanding wines and I would suggest you seriously consider beating a road to your wine merchant and demand, yes demand, that these wines be available for your selfish pleasure. Let me get to the heart of the matter. They had some fine reds especially the 2009 Alberti 154 Syrah and the grand one of the all, the 2003 Martino Old Wine Reserva Malbec. I get goose just thinking about it.
Here are two special wines I would definately consider pairing with this dish.
2010 Alberti 154 Torrontees, Sergio Montiel, La Rioja, Salta, Argentina
From Alberti 154 (address of the winery in case you need to tell your cabbie) this is the kind of white wine that helps me tolerate the 100 degree weather and the humidity from hell. It’s refreshing with a simply wild bouquet of citrus, mango, and lychee fruit. On the palate, it’s tropical fruit, well balanced, crisp and lovely long finish. It has to be five o’clock somewhere!
2010 Martino Semillon, Jorge Cardozo, Mendoza, Argentina
I am a huge fan of Semillon and this particular old vine one stands right there with the rest of the big boys. An aroma with notes of lemmon, pear, and golden fig and on the palate the wine has plenty of citrus and some mineral flavors and finishing just the way God intended, perfectly. There is a reason why this old vine Semillon has a cult following in Mendoza, it’s that good. Hugo Martino is clearly passionate and speaks about his wines as if they were his clients. It’s la passion and more, translated into an impressive selection of wines. Bravo!