what's cooking wednesday: calabrian style pan-fried chicken

A whole recipe without pasta! I told you it could happen. It’s nothing complicated, but it’s a winter staple for us around here. This week’s What’s Cooking Wednesday is Calabrian style pan-fried chicken.


If I haven't mentioned it before, now's a good time. Southern Italian cooking is famous for its simplicity. It's all about taking fresh, quality ingredients that you always have on hand and combining them together so that you create something delicious but in which you can still identify the parts the made the whole.

The general eating way here, often referred to as the Mediterranean Diet, includes lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, moderate amounts of fish and poultry, little red meat, and a good amount of red wine, and is considered fairly healthy although not perfect. The biggest plus, though, is the heavy use of olive oil, which is high in monounsaturated fat, the type that doesn't spike cholesterol. And this, as you know, is a very good thing.

So, without further ado, here's this week's recipe:

Chicken with Rosemary

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large red onion, roughly sliced
4 cloves garlic
½ chicken cut into pieces
2 tablespoons rosemary (a few sprigs)
Salt and black pepper to taste

Put olive oil into pan large enough to hold chicken.

On medium heat, sauté onions until translucent. Then add garlic and cook until lightly browned. Add the chicken to the pan, seasoning all sides with rosemary, salt and pepper and coating with the olive oil. Turn until all sides are lightly browned.

Then lower the heat slightly and let it cook until the chicken is done, which should be about 45 minutes depending on the thickness of your chicken.

Be sure to turn it every so often to keep it moist and evenly cooked.

Note that if you don’t want pan-fried, you can use the same ingredients to bake the chicken in the oven, just use less olive oil.

Buon appetito!