Poulet Sauté Provençale

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •30 cm (12-inch) heavy skillet or sauté pan
• •Small saucepan for parboiling the olives
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Warm shallow serving platter

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the garnish

   Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil. Add the pitted olives and parboil them for 1 minute, then drain and dry them; this softens the leathery edge of salt-cured olives without washing away their character. Roughly chop the tomato into tomates concassées, which simply means roughly chopped here. Dice the anchovies, crush the garlic, and chop the basil so everything is ready before the chicken meets the pan.

   If ripe tomatoes aren't worth buying, drain good canned whole tomatoes and weigh out 3 ounces. The classical pantry has always understood preservation, and a sound canned tomato beats a tired fresh one.
2. 2

   Dry the chicken

   Pat every chicken piece thoroughly dry, especially inside the folds of skin, then season with the salt. Leave the pieces uncovered while the skillet heats. Moisture is the enemy of the fond: if the surface is wet, the chicken releases water before it can bronze, and the sauce loses its foundation.

3. 3

   Sauté until bronze

   Heat the olive oil in a wide, heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it flows freely and glints. Reserve 1 teaspoon only as insurance against a burnt fond. Add the chicken skin-side down, leaving space between the pieces; work in two batches if the pan is crowded. Sauté, meaning cook briskly in a shallow film of fat, without disturbing the pieces for 6 to 8 minutes, until the skin is deep golden and releases easily. Turn and brown the second side for 3 to 4 minutes.

   If the fond darkens faster than the chicken, lower the heat and pull the skillet off the burner for half a minute. Deep brown gives the sauce character; black gives it bitterness.
4. 4

   Cook each piece

   Lower the heat to medium-low and continue cooking the chicken, turning every few minutes so it cooks evenly without scorching the fond. Remove each breast piece to a warm platter when its thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C). Let the legs continue until they reach at least 175°F (79°C) and feel tender beside the bone, usually 5 to 8 minutes longer. Dish all the chicken skin-side up and cover it loosely while you make the sauce; the five-minute rest will settle its juices.

5. 5

   Swill with wine

   Pour off the excess oil, leaving the browned film attached to the skillet. Raise the heat to medium-high, add the white wine, and swill it around the pan while scraping up every sound brown speck with a wooden spoon. If the fond is black and smells acrid, don't scrape it into dinner. Ça se rattrape: make the sauce in the dried olive saucepan using the reserved teaspoon of oil. The sauce will be lighter, but it will taste clean.

6. 6

   Simmer five minutes

   Add the crushed garlic, tomates concassées, diced anchovies, parboiled olives, and chopped basil to the wine. Bring the sauce to a lively simmer and cook for exactly 5 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the anchovies disappear and the wine and tomato form a loose, glossy sauce. It should taste of tomato and olive first, with the anchovy working underneath. If very juicy tomatoes leave it watery, lift out the solids and boil the liquid alone for another minute or two, then return them. Don't simmer the whole garnish into a paste.

7. 7

   Cover and serve

   Taste the sauce before adding any more salt, because the anchovies and olives have already done much of that work. Spoon the sauce and all its olives over the chicken, making certain every piece catches some tomato and wine. Bring the platter straight to the table while the skin still holds its browned edges and the sauce gleams around it. One cook, one stove, one evening. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Choose a chicken whose pieces will cook at roughly the same pace, or ask the butcher to cut one into eight. Technique first, always. A modest bird carefully dried, browned, and removed piece by piece will beat an expensive one cooked carelessly.
• •Use small salt-cured black olives with real character, such as Niçoise olives, and parboil them as the source directs. Sweet, uniformly black canned olives bring color but very little flavor.
• •The anchovies are seasoning, not garnish. Chop them finely and let them dissolve into the wine and tomato; anyone finding a distinct piece of anchovy has found one the cook left too large.
• •Pour the same dry white wine used in the pan, or serve a dry Provençal rosé. Both have enough freshness for the tomato and enough savory weight for the olives and anchovy.
• •Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours and keep them for up to 3 days. Reheat gently in a covered skillet until the chicken reaches 165°F (74°C), loosening the sauce with a spoonful of water if necessary.

Advance Preparation

• •The tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, olives, and basil can be prepared up to 4 hours ahead and held separately in the refrigerator. Bring the tomato back toward room temperature before it enters the hot pan.
• •The chicken can be cut, salted, and left uncovered in the refrigerator for up to 8 hours. The dry surface will brown particularly well; take the pieces out 20 minutes before cooking so the chill begins to leave them.
• •Cook the dish close to serving. The sauce takes only 5 minutes, and repeated reheating softens the browned skin that gives the dish its contrast.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 275g)