Today We're Cooking: Basque Chicken and Chorizo Saut?

Sexy Beast

EGO Is My Life!
Hey Guy and Gals!

I'm teaching myself how to cook...for no particular reason. I've already cooked a few dishes ranging from a simple stew to potato soup to Manhattan clam chowder and I've done cr?me brul?e a few times. It wasn't until I got to Basque chicken that I finally decided to photo document the cooking. I'll probably make this a regular series of threads.

Anyway, the dish is called Basque Chicken and Chorizo Saut?. I came across the recipe after looking for a recipe that contained Chorizos. The recipe calls for:

4 ounces dry chorizo, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 whole chicken legs, split (3 1/2 pounds)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 medium red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch-thick strips
2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
6 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 large thyme sprigs
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
3/4 cup dry sherry
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
One 9-ounce package frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and pressed dry
2 tablespoons shredded basil

So once you go out and buy all the supplies your ready to cook.

First thing you want to do is cut ever thing up. It is crucial to have thing prepared before you start cooking. Remember timing is very important when it comes to cooking and preparing stuff before you start cooking is a great habit to get into. There was a time when I incinerated a bunch of bacon because I didn't have thing prepared.

I didn't photograph me cutting up the onions, but they need to be pretty thinly sliced. The peppers need to be thickly sliced like down below:


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The garlic, like the onions also need to be thinly sliced:


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As the recipe states about the cherry tomatoes need to be sliced in half...and since I took a photo of it:


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The hardest thing to find on the list was the dry chorizo and even then I could find actual dry chorizo. So here is what I got:


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The type that I got did it's job pretty well. So take the Chorizo and cut it into think slices. To get more mileage out of them I cut them in half too:


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I got a package of chicken thighs and a package of drumsticks which is basically just a chicken leg. I seasoned them with salt and pepper:


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I next put the chorizos into a deep skillet and cooked them for six minutes on a moderate heat.


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I then removed them from the skillet and placed them onto a separate plate. I drained most of the rendered fat from the skillet (chorizos have a lot of fat) and added in olive oil. Next I put the chicken into the skillet and let them cook for 15 min on a moderate-high heat:


Before
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Done
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I removed the chicken from the skillet and place them with the chorizo in separate plate:


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I next added the onions, peppers, garlic and thyme into the skillet and let that cook for roughly five minutes on a lowish heat:




Now comes the Sherry, it's a pretty crucial part of the recipe and cannot be substituted. If your not of age to purchase alcohol yet then get a parent or guardian. I'm not all that knowledgeable when it comes to wine, so I can't vouch for the quality of this Sherry, but it did the job just fine:


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Add the Sherry, cherry tomatoes, paprika and crushed red pepper at this time and cook for one minute. (No Photo) The add back in the chicken and chorizo. Let this cook for 25 minutes, this need to be cooked covered and should be on a moderately low heat:


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Once that is done, add in the artichokes. Let this cook uncovered for 10 minutes on a moderate heat:

Before
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After
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Remove the chicken and place on a platter. Stir in the basil and then spoon the sauce on the chicken:


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Serve meal with toasty French bread. Oh, and the aftermath of the meal:


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...and that's pretty much all you have to do. There are quite a few steps, but there isn't anything particularly hard about the recipe.



Also inb4: I'm a picky eater or I have a severely limited palate.
 
Ya Dry chorizo is hard to find... Unless you live in Southern California :p

If you do a thread I might throw in a couple of recipes you could try. I tend to cook alot for my self and I think I do a pretty good job of it.
 
Chickens < polar bears

bad joke is bad

besides ive eaten bear

the meat is more comparable to beef

think like a really tough steak

i like to think that you cant be considered a badass until youve eaten an animal that could you limb from limb and eat you

once youve done that the sky is the limit on your coolness scale
 
Sexy Beast is some sort of robot that does everything.

either that or he has insomnia and tries all sorts of new things while everyone else sleeps
 
Wow man, good recipe for teaching yourself to cook. Keep it up, amateur cooking is way more fun. Sopressata also works in that chorizo recipe but the piquancy of chorizo is irreplaceable. YUM
 
Great guide sexy! Ive thought about starting a thread. Maybe I would share my Bachin' it up Desert guide, including cereal pie-crusts lol
 
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