Saffron Chicken in Wine

Name: Saffron Chicken in White Wine Recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Chicken drumsticks 4; Dried mint 0.5 tsp; Coarse salt 0.5 tsp (3 g); Lemon 1 (you need the juice of half); Onion 2; Garlic 2-3 cloves; Olive oil 50 ml; Dry white wine 100 ml (or water); Dried mint or a "Mediterranean" herb mix 0.5 tsp; Saffron a pinch (or marigold, about 0.5 tsp, or turmeric, 0.5 tsp); Salt, black pepper to taste

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60 mins

Chicken in wine needs saffron. It’s probably the hardest-to-find seasoning or spice in our cooking. Honestly, few people have seen real saffron or know what it looks like. At markets, sellers offer substitutes and swear they’re the real thing.

Saffron, or crocus (Crocus), is a very pretty ornamental plant, and we often buy the flowers as gifts for wives and girlfriends on March 8. Besides decoration, these flowers are grown for their stigmas. Since ancient times the stigmas have been used as a spice and a natural food coloring. Saffron colors pilaf, paella and other dishes. The beautiful orange-yellow color is even called “saffron.”

But saffron is a very expensive spice. It takes up to 100,000 flowers to make 1 kilogram of dried saffron, and one hectare of land yields up to 20 kg of saffron a year. Hence the astronomical price.

Saffron gets replaced, and quite inventively. The best-known cheap substitute, turmeric, handles the color well and has a similar bitterness. Another substitute, and a more interesting one in my opinion, is marigold. In Europe marigold is what’s mostly used in budget cooking, and they confidently call it saffron. When you buy saffron, there’s a 90% chance you’re actually buying marigold.

By the way, in the Caucasus marigold is known as “Imeretian saffron.” Even there people argue, since there’s also blessed thistle, tagetes, holy thistle, Italian sow thistle, calendula, curly plumeless thistle, cnicus… and all of them get called Imeretian saffron. It’s complicated…

Let’s make a sauce with saffron, wine and onion for the chicken. If you have saffron, great. Add the saffron. I have Imeretian saffron, that very marigold. I bought it in Europe, and the little bag confidently said “safran.” Never mind. What matters is that the sauce turned out right, with the proper saffron color, and the chicken in wine will have the right color too.

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Ingredients

2 servings

For the marinade
Chicken drumsticks 4
Dried mint 0.5 tsp
Coarse salt 0.5 tsp (3 g)
Lemon 1 (you need the juice of half)
For the sauce
Onion 2
Garlic 2-3 cloves
Olive oil 50 ml
Dry white wine 100 ml (or water)
Dried mint or a “Mediterranean” herb mix 0.5 tsp
Saffron a pinch (or marigold, about 0.5 tsp, or turmeric, 0.5 tsp)
Salt, black pepper to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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Chicken

Portioned pieces of chicken work best. Thighs, drumsticks or whole leg quarters are ideal.
Prepare the chicken: wash it and remove any leftover fat and “yellow” skin. Be especially careful to remove any remaining feathers, or it won’t taste great.
Marinate the chicken. In a cup or small bowl, mix 0.5 tsp each of dried mint and coarse salt. Rub the mixture into the meat and pour over the juice of half a lemon. Leave the chicken for 20-30 mins, covered with a towel.

Saffron sauce

I’ll say right away: since saffron is an expensive, hard-to-find spice, better to use marigold. With real saffron, a small pinch is enough. With turmeric or curry, half a teaspoon. I put a big pinch of marigold into the sauce, as much as I could take with my fingers, roughly half a teaspoon. The sauce with onion came out right, yellow with a touch of orange. So it’s up to you.
While the chicken marinates, soften the onion and garlic. Peel both. Slice the onion into thin strips, and either chop the garlic finely or grate it. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and let it get hot. As soon as it gives off a distinct smell, add the sliced onion and garlic. Cook covered over low heat for about 10 mins, stirring from time to time. You don’t need to brown them, just soften the onion.
Add the spices: 0.5 tsp of dried mint or a dried “Mediterranean” herb mix, and a pinch of saffron or your substitute, whichever you settled on. Add a little salt and cook the sauce with the spices for 1-2 mins.

Stewing

Stew the chicken in the sauce for 30 mins. Put the chicken legs in the saucepan and pour in 100 ml (half a cup) of dry white wine or water. Bring to a boil, cover the pan and simmer over low heat for 30 mins, until the meat is tender.
Turn the chicken from time to time and baste it with the liquid, or it will burn. By the end the sauce will be as thick as sour cream, and the chicken a pleasant yellow-orange. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serving

Put the chicken pieces on a plate with all of the saffron sauce.
For a side dish I recommend boiled potatoes in chunks, sprinkled with dill. Couscous is also a good choice, the way it’s done in the Middle East: spread all the sauce and chicken over the couscous.

Calories and macros

515 kcal

Serving ≈ 270 g

Protein30 g24% of kcal
Fat37 g66% of kcal
Carbs13 g10% of kcal

100 g188 kcalProtein 10.9 gFat 13.6 gCarbs 4.6 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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