Chicken Stewed in Wine with Tomatoes

Preparation

1. At home, chicken with tomatoes is made from a whole bird or its parts. It doesn’t matter, because the bird is cut into pieces for frying anyway. Outdoors, you can cook a whole chicken in a cauldron, and it turns out excellent. The tomatoes need to be very ripe and soft. I advise adding more fragrant herbs to the sauce, as rosemary and basil stand out especially in the flavor.

2. Cut the chicken into portion-sized pieces and remove any remaining feathers and large pieces of fat.

   

Frying

1. In a deep frying pan, mix the butter and olive oil and heat over medium heat. This fat mixture is very aromatic.

2. Fry the chicken pieces in the oil on all sides until a golden crust forms, about 10 mins.

   

3. While the chicken is frying, scald the tomatoes with boiling water and peel off the skin. Large tomatoes can simply be peeled with a knife.

4. Remove the seeds, and either purée the pulp with a blender or chop it with a knife.

5. Peel the garlic and chop it coarsely.

6. Add the garlic to the chicken and, if you like, a whole hot pepper pod. Fry together for 1 min, so the garlic releases its aroma but doesn’t burn.

   

Stewing

1. To make the chicken with tomatoes aromatic, I add plenty of herbs. Usually it’s a sprig of rosemary, 2-3 sprigs of fresh basil and a sprig of mint. So the herbs don’t fall apart while cooking, I put them in a sachet bag and throw it away afterwards.

2. Put the herbs in the pan, add a little salt to the chicken and season with ground black pepper.

3. Pour in the dry white or rosé wine. Note that you don’t need to add any water.

   

4. Stew the chicken in the wine under a lid for 30 mins over the lowest heat. During cooking the meat will absorb more than half of the liquid.

5. Remove the bag of herbs. Add the tomato purée prepared earlier to the pan and stew the chicken with the tomato for another 15 mins over medium heat, uncovered. At the final stage almost all the liquid evaporates and the sauce thickens, while the meat becomes tender and easily comes off the bone.

6. If you like, you can make the sauce really thick: just take the chicken pieces out onto a plate and reduce the tomato to the desired thickness over high heat, stirring. It can be served separately.

   

Serving

1. Put the chicken pieces on a serving plate and pour the tomato sauce over them. Add sliced vegetables, cucumber and tomatoes, and a few herbs. If the sauce is served separately, pour it into a small sauce boat and put it right on the plate.

   Besides cucumbers and tomatoes, you can serve fried zucchini and eggplant. Steamed vegetables go well with chicken too. Serve fresh bread as well. Don’t forget to put the stewed hot pepper pod on the plate, as I love the heat in dishes like this.