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Chicken, Hunter Style

Directions

Coat each piece of chicken with a light dusting of flour, gently shake off the excess flour and flavor each piece of chicken with salt and pepper.

Put the oil and the pancetta in a large sauté pan and cook over medium heat, stirring well, until the pancetta starts to brown, about two to three minutes. Using a slotted spoon remove the pancetta from the pan and set aside in a bowl to use later. Leave the oil in the pan.

In the same pan where you browned the pancetta, increase the heat to high until the oil starts to sizzle, about one to two minutes and sear the chicken pieces in the hot oil about two minutes per side.

Remove the chicken pieces from the pan and set aside on a plate lined with paper to absorb the extra oil. Let it rest while we cook the other ingredients.

Dispose of the oil left in the pan in which you have cooked the chicken. In the same pan pour two tablespoons of extra light olive oil and cook over medium heat until the oil starts to sizzle, about two to three minutes.

Add the mushrooms and cook stirring well for one minute.

Next add the browned pieces of pancetta, the white pearl onions, garlic, rosemary and red pepper flakes, stir together until blended and cook for three minutes or until the garlic starts to brown.

Add the salt and pepper to ingredients in the pan and stir well, cooking for one more minute.

Add the red wine sauce to the pan, increase the heat to high and stir until the sauce in pan starts to boil, about two minutes.

Now add the chicken to pan and reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 10-12 more minutes. While the chicken finishes cooking make the green beans.

You can serve this dish as individual servings, accompanied by the green beans, scalloped potatoes and lot of the red wine sauce on top. You can also serve it family style with mashed potatoes. When I do that, I like to use oval baking dishes to bring the food to the table, It makes it easier to pass it around.

In this case I would use one dish for the beans, one dish for the scalloped potatoes or mashed potatoes and one more dish for the chicken with a nice amount of the sauce poured on top.

I would bring a gravy boat for the remaining sauce and of course lot of bread for everyone.

You better have your tailor on speed dial for this one!

Chef’s Tip:

If instead of using the wine sauce, you are just using a mix of red wine and chicken stock, before you serve the sauce in the pan, you can thicken it up with a roux, which is a paste of equal parts softened butter and flour. In this case a roux made with 1 tablespoon of each should give you exactly what you are looking for, add it slowly over high heat whisking well. The sauce will thicken up in about three to five minutes.

Ingredients:

4 individual chicken breasts about six to eight ounces each

2 tablespoon white flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 ounces pancetta, diced into ½ pieces

2 tablespoons extra light olive oil

8 ounces cremini or white mushrooms, cut into quarters

8 ounces fresh pearl onions which have been parboiled for three minutes

6 garlic cloves, whole, peeled and cut in half

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1½ cup red wine sauce or 3/4 cup red wine and 1 cup chicken stock