Pollo alla contadina
Pollo alla Contadina
#ChiantiClassicoJoyOfLife
As you might have noticed, this summer on #NinainChianti, we're cooking up a storm with everything our pots and ovens can offer! In my recent blog posts under the hashtag #ChiantiClassicoJoyOfLife, I've "served" you some typical Tuscan dishes, starting with Pane Toscano, then Pappa al Pomodoro, Verdure fritte, Panzanella and Bruschetta, all the way to Insalata di Farro. These were meant to bring a little Italian joy of life right to your home. Today, we're moving on to a "secondo piatto" – that's a main course: Pollo alla contadina.
A delicious treat from the "poor people's kitchen"
The Tuscan kitchen is also known as "cucina povera" – which basically means "poor people's kitchen." This is simply because Tuscany used to have a very rural structure, and people were often very poor under the rule of their landlords. So, "Pollo alla contadina" just means "chicken in the style of a farmer's wife." They cooked and ate whatever could be grown and harvested on the farm. This included seasonal vegetables, but also all sorts of beans, peas, and chickpeas, which, of course, could also be preserved really well.
Meat, especially beef and pork, was precious and rarely made it to the table. But if you look at it from today's perspective, it wasn't really a poor cuisine back then. Instead, it was what we now consider desirable: seasonal, regional food, lots of veggies, and less meat. What did appear on the menu more often, though, was chicken. That's because chickens grow much faster than, say, a cow. And that's how Pollo alla Contadina came about, using ingredients readily available on any farm: onions, garlic, rosemary, sage, and olive oil.
Pollo alla Contadina
Onions, garlic, and herbs create an amazing aroma.
Even today, you'll find a rosemary bush or a sage plant at almost every house – sometimes even rosemary hedges that give off a wonderful scent in summer and grow so big they need to be trimmed with hedge shears in spring. Maybe that's why I love Pollo alla Contadina so much, because it features so many of these wonderful Tuscan herbs that I adore. By the way, my go-to trio of herbs, without which I couldn't survive in the kitchen, are rosemary, thyme, and sage. With them, everything turns out great...
Country-style chicken!
I like to use chicken thighs, but you can definitely use chicken breast too – just remember that they cook differently. So, slowly brown the chicken thighs or breast skin-side down in a pan with not too much olive oil. Do it slowly because that way the skin really crisps up nicely.
And what could go better with this chicken dish than a piece of Pane Toscano, perfect for soaking up every last drop of that heavenly, aromatic sauce? Of course, you can also serve a green salad or potatoes with this country-style chicken. And what's also a "perfect match" here is a glass of Chianti Classico Riserva. It's simply divine!