Chicken With Shallots And Kumquats
I love kumquats. But let's be reasonable: they're difficult to cook. They tend to roll around a skillet! But I'd go through a lot to get that spiky taste: fresh, vibrant, a spark of sunshine in the dead of winter.
And winter it is. It's snowing at our house. Has been for days. So we're hunkered down for the long haul. (Or at least until we have to be out the door early in the morning for a working trip into New York City.)
Let's just say this: it's hard to eat in season when your driveway is a skating rink. But kumquats fit the bill. Bright and divine, they're in our markets right now.
While Bruce was out teaching knitting the other night, I wanted to make a simple skillet supper that used kumquats to good effect. I knew I'd need to balance them with lots of aromatics and other big flavors. So here's what I came up with.
First, position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 425F.
Next, prepare the vegetable and kumquat mixture. Slice five peeled shallot lobes into halves, keeping each half together at the root end--then slice a dozen or so kumquats into thin rings, picking out and discarding any seeds. Put these things in a bowl--and add 1/4 cup halved, pitting green olives; 1 jarred roasted red pepper, cut into thin strips; 8 chopped sage leaves; 3 dried bay leaves; and 3 thyme sprigs. Mix all that together and set it aside.
Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a big, oven-safe skillet, the biggest you have. Add one chicken cut into 8 to 10 parts, salted and peppered on both sides. My skillet wouldn't hold them all at once, so I had to work in batches. (I slit the breasts in half the short way--plus, I used the back.)
Brown the chicken really well in the skillet on both sides. Don't skimp. Brown is flavor. I probably let the pieces go about 6 minutes, then turned them for just a couple minutes. I transferred them to a plate and continued with the rest.
Once all the chicken was brown and on the plate, I added about 3 ounces slab bacon, cut into cubes. I let these go over the heat until they were turning crispy on all sides, about 4 minutes, turning often.
I should also add that I didn't drain the skillet because I was working with an organic, (truly) free-range bird, with less subcutaneous fat than some of those farmyard monsters. If your skillet is slicked with lots of chicken fat, feel free to drain off all but a tablespoon or so before you add the bacon.
Once the bacon was crunchy, I poured in about 1/2 cup dry white wine and scraped up the browned, crunchy bits in the skillet as the wine boiled to a thick glaze.
I then poured in all my aromatics in that bowl. I stirred it around for a couple minutes, then nestled the chicken pieces back into the skillet, brown side up, setting them right on top of everything. I also poured any chicken "juice" on that plate over the pieces in the skillet.
I shoved the whole thing in the oven and let it go until an instant-read meat ther-mometer inserted into the thickest center of the thigh and breast without touching bone registered 165F. Served the whole thing with short-grain brown rice. A meal to beat winter at every turn.
Mark Scarbrough | Posted on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 1:38PM chicken, comfort food, kumquats, skillet supper 
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Reader Comments (10)
qumquats, shmumquats. i was soooooo sold by the time you poured the wine! lovely dish.
(planning on making your granola this weekend.)
Yum, I love kumquats, too. I mean, what's not to like about something that looks like a doll-size orange? I love how you combined this with salty, rich olives. It may not be as cold here as it is there, but I'm definitely putting this on my must-make list for winter.
Looks fantastic -- will have to try it out when I'm not cooking for the picky-eater tykes.
Thanks for reminding me of kumquats -- I saw them at Stop & Shop this week and used them with my last bag of frozen cranberries to make a delicious winter preserve!
Interesting website: glad I discovered it and will check out your cookbooks, too.
(a fellow resident of Colebrook)
Kqadams: Welcome. And thanks for dropping a note. I hope you do enjoy the website. I sure enjoy Colebrook.
M.
That sounds and looks lovely - what a great way to use cumquats. On Sunday I looked at the ten or so ripe fruit on our tree and sighed that they werent enough to do much with, and I didn't have time to make cumquat jam or something with them. This chicken dish would be a perfect way to use them up...and not feel bad about all the fruit that has been ripening and dropping off the tree.
Spicy More: Welcome to the site. And wow, what a great use of them. Lovely. (And I'm so dead jealous that you have a kumquat tree!)
I am going to make this tonight! Looks delicious! Now I just have to stop snacking on these kumquats . . .
Jessa: Ridiculously good, if I do say so myself. In fact, I'm going to make these this week again, while kumquats are still in our markets in New England. (Wish I had a tree!)
Yum! Kumquats with chicken--this might make itself an honorary Chinese dish for Chinese New Year. This recipe will give me something to do with my sage and thyme growing robustly in my LA kitchen window.
Happy Lunar New Year!
PS i'm making your mini pizza muffins for a potluck BBQ tomorrow and you'll get some by-product PR. =)
Hey, Jen! You're right about the herbs: use them profligately! Especially the sage. And gung hei faat choi right back to you.