Venezia

Just call me Doubting Thomas. I wasn't convinced, but, as usual, I am ready to try, and will happily admit if I am proved wrong. How could I cook skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets for an hour, and end up with something that is still worth eating? We were about to find out. I had turned, once again to Tessa Kiros. This time, the book was Venezia, a gorgeous book to look at, and especially treasured as it was a gift from a friend made through Nigella.com.

The dish in question initially calls for a chicken cut into pieces. The recipe however, goes on to say you can use large chicken breast fillets in it's place. Now I love chicken with the bone in, and in fact, the breast is one of my least favourite pieces, it has it's place, but it is not my 'go to' bit of poultry. Having said that, I have The Lovely Man to consider. He prefers his meat off the bone. On a stick certainly, but off the bone. Go figure. So, as we've indulged in some lovely chicken on the bone earlier in the week, I thought, given Tessa's suggestion I'd try breast fillets here and see if they could indeed come out tender and moist.

Pollo con Pomodoro in tecia

1 x 1.25 kg chicken cut into 8 and skinned or about the same weight of skinless chicken breast pieces (I used four and they weighed about the same - big chicken breasts)
1 clove garlic
1 white onion, quartered
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 small stalk celery, rough chopped
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
a good pinch ground peperoncino (I used chilli and sweet paprika)
185ml (3/4 cup) red wine
2 x 400g tinned chopped tomatoes
salt
pepper
a little water (in need)

Pop the garlic into a food processor, and chop it finely before adding the onion, carrot and celery and pulse until roughly rather than finely chopped.

Heat the oil in a large pot and saute the vegetables and parsley until fragrant. Add the chicken into the pan and cook off on both sides, where you're looking for a little bit of browning on each side, not all that easily done with the veg.

Season well with salt and pepper and add the rosemary and peperoncino and pour in the wine. Leave this to cook down for a few minutes then add the tomatoes, bring to the boil and then reduce heat to a simmer, partially cover and then cook gently for about an hour.

After about 40 minutes cooking you may want to add some water, up to 250ml (1 cup), I added about 3/4 of a cup. Continue cooking until chicken is tender or, in the case of breast fillets, the hour is up. Taste for seasoning and garnish with some more chopped parsley.

Serves 4 with some wet polenta alongside. The polenta, as described in the book (I chose the instant option) is simply 1.5 litres of water, brought to the boil, to which you add 1 tbsp olive oil and a good teaspoon of salt. Sprinkle in 250g of polenta, whisking all the while until it is thick and smoothish, add more water if it's too thick. Serve immediately, the polenta wont wait, the chicken will.

I served the chicken for the children sliced, I think, in hindsight, I should have done that for us as well. This first of all, makes the chicken go further, but it also looks more elegant. Not that my family care, but for photo ops....

Anyway, it's deliciously flavoured. My rosemary has beautiful and soft new growth right now, just perfect for this dish. The breast meat? Yes, tender, yes moist, but, I still prefer my meat on the bone. In fact, I'd choose thighs and drumsticks over a whole chicken to avoid the breast meat all together.