Friday, January 13, 2012

M.Jacques Armagnac Chicken -French Fridays With Dorie


















I am very excited each time I have to try out a new dish from AMFT  :)  This week French Friday's recipe is M.Jacques Armagnac Chicken....and gosh it was GOOD !!!  I thought it was just like other normal stew dish but I was wrong.  It was so TASTY that I forgot for a moment, I was recovering from a bad flu and the   beautiful aroma automatically mend my appetite.  The chicken was tender and juicy and baking with a foil over the chicken before covering it with the lid, has given the chicken a deeply golden color and the aroma and flavor sealed in. The sauce was super delicious...richly flavored with the natural sweetness from the free range chicken and red onions  and the subtle fragrant of basil and rosemary herbs that I used was enough to give me back my appetite.  This was easy to whip up and as I was recovering from my flu, it has made cooking easier for me. I just have to dump everything into the casserole dish and baked it for an hour and tada it was ready for serving.  


















Wild Boar and I had half a bird each ...yum yum .Dont worry, the bird is small....as free range chickens are normally smaller in sizes . I had it alone without rice and the carrots , onions and potatoes were so tasty having absorbed all the sweetness from the  sauce .  I took Dorie's suggestion and added some prunes to the dish...giving the gravy a darker rich color. The pruney flavor of armagnac/brandy is so intriguing ! In my case , I used brandy. A splash of the brandy on the bird has given the chicken a nice golden color after baking.   


















I lightly sauteed the vegetables with basil and rosemary with a tablespoon of olive oil, add some pepper and salt for taste and before dishing up , add in some prunes, and placed the sauteed veggies at the base of the casserole dish , place the chicken ( cut into halves in my case ) on top of the veggies. Splash 1/2 cup of  Armagnac or brandy over and around the chicken. If your casserole cover is shaky, cover your dish with a piece of aluminium foil and then put the cover in place . Slide the casserole into the oven and let the chicken roast in the oven undisturbed for 60 minutes.  Transfer the casserole to the stove and remove the lid and foil. Turn the heat to medium , add in a cup of hot water to the pan dish and stir the vegetable to dislodge those stuck at the bottom . Simmer for 5 minutes and you are ready to crave the chicken and serve in a platter with the tender veggies and aromatic sauce. Thanks to Dorie for sharing this recipe with us in her book AMFT. Her recipes never failed to intrigue me. This dish turned out amazingly GOOD! 








































délicieux !



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25 comments:

  1. Your chicken came out picture perfect! How did you get it to brown so nicely? My chicken was delicious, but not very photogenic and it didn't brown at all. I admit that I was a bit confused as to how it could brown with the top on, but your came out beautifully. As is so often the case, I'm jealous of your dish:-)

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  2. oo these look super delicous. Can see the chicken is tender

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  3. The chicken looks soooo good! Perfectly browned!

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  4. Aiyooo.... It's dinner time now and I'm hungry looking at it. The tapau isn't back yet...

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  5. Sorry to hear you haven't been feeling well. Hope you are doing better now.
    Glad you enjoyed the chicken :-)

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  6. salivating , my friend..sounds seriously Goooood! the addition of prunes are so interesting here.

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  7. Your chicken turned out gorgeous! Glad to hear you're on the mend!

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  8. Sorry you haven't been feeling well but good to read that this chicken dish revived you!!
    Your chicken and photos are gorgeous, you have the most beautiful color on your chicken, I will have to try using foil next time. Your casserole is dish is lovely too! And I like the chicken cut in half;-)

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  9. Your chicken looks amazing, and perfectly golden. Glad to hear you recovered your appetite for this wonderful dish.

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  10. I've said it on several posts for this today - it looks beautiful. I can just tell how tender melt-in-your-mouth the chicken must be, and the vegetables must infuse a wonderful aroma!

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  11. This does seem like a pretty painless recipe to make if you're sick. I'm going to lock that idea away for the future. I hope you're feeling better! and I'm glad this recipe was worth hauling yourself out of bed for.

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  12. Everything looks so good. Those prunes really
    add something to this dish, and I am going to try them
    the next time. Hubby and I both loved this one.
    Hope you are feeling better now.

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  13. Glad to hear you're recovering. It's like this dish has magical powers! We all loved it here!

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  14. Your chicken looks so beautiful and brown - and smart job to remember to add the prunes (I didn't :(). Hope you are fully recovered soon.

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  15. Great idea to roast the halves. I'm so envious your chicken came out so evenly golden. Get well soon!

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  16. The chicken is gorgeous - what kind did you use? It has so much color even uncooked! Hope you are feeling better!

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  17. Your chicken is such a lovely golden brown. I hope you are feeling better!

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  18. I think this must be even better than chicken soup for when you're ailing. And it looks so pretty too.

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  19. Chicken is such perfect food for recuperating from being under the weather. Did you broil your chicken in the end? Yours is browner than any I've seen. I added prunes to mine too and liked the sweetness it added to the dish.

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  20. The chicken is looking perfect and so moist. Lovely flavours.
    There is an award for you waiting to be collected at my blog.
    http://www.easyfoodsmith.blogspot.com/

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  21. Your chicken is so golden and mine was pale, pale, pale! Sorry to hear you've been sick but glad you are recovering!

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  22. First, I am sorry you've had the flu. I cannot believe you were up to cooking anything! Even though my lid was a tight one, I still put foil tightly over the pot before putting the lid on and plopping it in the over. Ut's yummy, I agree.

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  23. Hi Doristas and all who dropped by and leave me the warm get well wishes :) I have fully recovered and now eating well too :p

    I enjoyed this dish very much and looking forward to trying out the recipes in the book and cooking along with you guys.

    Have a nice day and thanks for dropping me a line here. It is encourages me further :)

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  24. I've finally got 'round to posting about this one. Yours looks fantastic! This is a recipe that I'll keep coming back to, too.

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