vinegar chicken recipe (omnivore)

recipe by m-c

just the recipe

what I was looking for

I've started going to our local farmers' market (I know, I know, what took me so long?) and can now buy beautiful hand-raised outdoor chickens, which remind me how much I always used to love chicken. A celebration seemed in order.

what I made

Nigella Lawson's vinegar chicken from Forever Summer (p. 140) made in a wintertime way rather than a summertime way because no matter what the calendar said, in Seattle it was miserably cold and rainy.

chit-chat

Who knows how long I've been making vinegar chicken? There's no vinegar chicken recipe in either of Craig Claiborne's NYTimes books (The New York Times Cook Book, Harper & Row, 1961; The New York Times International Cook Book, Harper & Row, 1971) and I can't find one in Countess Morphy's Recipes of All Nations (Wm. H. Wise, 1952).

If it's not in those three books, odds are I came across it in the pages of a supermarket magazine called Woman's Day. There were two such magazines, Woman's Day and Family Circle, and of the two I favored Woman's Day. In addition to the recipes on the ordinary flimsy paper of the main magazine, Woman's Day published an insert on heavier, rough stock with no advertising. The insert was for special, sophisticated recipes, not the everyday fare of the rest of the magazine. The word "foodie" hadn't yet been coined, but the idea already existed, and the Woman's Day insert was foodie. Foreign names, but not haute; rather a fondness for hearty peasant food the world over. Like vinegar chicken.

Oh joy! There's one for sale on eBay even as we speak. How To Lose Weight without Will Power, Prescription for a Beautiful Figure, 12 Great Hamburger Recipes, The New Look in Knitted Afghans, Magic Molasses Recipes, How To Decorate with Pictures, Cabbage Cook Book, ads for Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, Clairol Shampoo, Anacin, Salem, Breck, it's all there. The Cabbage Cook Book would be the insert, carefully ripped out and saved ... for a while.

Nigella's version of vinegar chicken uses dry white wine, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, and tomato. The four different acids work beautifully together, preventing the dish from being, as it sometimes can be, monotonic. I promise to follow her path from now on.

grades for my version

healthy	B	I consider chicken a treat food, but I'm tending more and more to think it's a good idea to have one treat food, or maybe two, every day.
fast	C	Not fast.
easy	A	A doddle.
cheap	C	Hmm. This chicken is not at all cheap, but is there a cheaper luxury than good food? I don't think so.
delicious	A	Better than ever.

yield

Serves four.

equipment

   a lidded frying pan, just big enough to hold the chicken in a single layer

the sofrito

ingredients	Nigella	m-c	why?
olive oil	6 Tablespoons	1 Tablespoon	tastier [1], weight
onion family	1 onion, chopped fine	1 shallot, sliced	easier
Notes
[1]	I wonder whether this measurement is a typo. It sounds sickeningly too much, and I don't want to waste the calories.

   Film the bottom of your pan with olive oil, add the sliced shallots, put them on the fire, and brown them.

the chicken

ingredients	Nigella	m-c	why?
herbs	a handful of parsley and basil, chopped	a handful of parsley and cilantro, chopped	easier [1]
tomatoes	2 large fresh tomatoes, seeded and chopped	1 cup of canned diced fire‑roasted tomatoes	tastier [2]
chicken	1 chicken, jointed into 8 pieces	4 meaty thighs	easier [3]
salt	to taste	to taste	no change
pepper	to taste	to taste	no change
Notes
[1]	I had a mix of parsley and cilantro left over from a Moroccan tagine the previous night, and I was moving the dish away from summery to wintry, so the summer tang of basil wouldn't be missed.
[2]	Tastier for a winter dish, that is. Nigella's summer version stirs in fresh tomatoes at the end; my winter version braises canned tomatoes with the chicken.
[3]	Easier and besides, we avoid squabbling over who gets the thighs.

Sprinkle half the herbs on the shallots, spread the tomatoes over them, and then lay the chicken down on them. Salt and pepper the chicken, and sprinkle the other half of the herbs on top.

the liquids

ingredients	Nigella	m-c	why?
chicken broth	10 Tablespoons fake	1 cup home-made	tastier
dry white wine	½ cup	½ cup	no change
red wine vinegar	½ cup	½ cup	no change
lemon juice	juice of half a lemon	juice of half a lemon	no change

Gently pour the chicken broth, vinegar, and lemon juice over and around the chicken and put the lid on the pan.

Cook the chicken over a very low flame till it's done to the bone, roughly 40 minutes, adding a little water and scraping the bottom of the pan if it starts to cook dry.

The summer version is good hot, warm, or room temp. The winter version is good hot, dolled up with more fresh herbs.

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