Chicken of Deceptive Elegance

Hi, everyone. I’m new here, but I promise not to poison you. I love to cook (or so my 800 cookbooks tell me — at least, they did before I sold about 200 of them off. 800 is ridiculous. 600, somehow, is sane. Never mind.) but I don’t always have the sort of time required to execute recipes as written — so what you’re going to get from me is tasty shortcuts to good cooking.

Take the recipe I’m including here — the original, from Gourmet, requires processing the garlic in a food processor and braising the chicken. It also adds 1/4 cup of water, but since my oven-roasted variation compensates for that with the juices from the chicken, I don’t bother. Anyway, give it a try (Brutus, this means you) and let me know what you think.

Chicken with Shallots, Garlic, Bacon and Balsamic Vinegar

6 slices bacon, fried till crisp, 3T fat reserved in skillet. Crumble the bacon and reserve for later use.

7 or 8 pieces of boneless, skinless chicken of your choice.

1 lb shallots, peeled and diced.

1 head’s worth of minced garlic — I usually assume a head is about 16 or 18 cloves (some heads can go as high as 40, but let’s not be ridiculous).

1/4 c balsamic vinegar

Spread the chicken pieces in the bottom of a baking casserole dish, 13 x9 x4 is good.

Sauté the shallots in the bacon fat until they turn golden, then add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes until the garlic softens a little. You may need to add a LITTLE water here, but make it minimal. Add the balsamic vinegar, stir, and boil for one minute.

Spread the shallot/garlic/balsamic mixture over the chicken, cover it and bake it at 350 or 375 until it’s done (meaning, when you cut into a center piece, the juices run clear). Note: Cook it uncovered for the last 15 or so minutes of baking time to let it brown a little. Sprinkle the bacon over the dish about 5 minutes before you take it out of the oven, so the bacon warms a little. Serve.