Prat chicken stewed with lemon and olives
Prat chicken stewed with lemon and olives
Autumn is here, the days are getting shorter, and we’re ready for dishes with a strong personality. It’s the perfect time to taste the exquisite stew that the renowned chef Jordi Vilà, from the Alkimia restaurant designed by Chu Uroz in the old Moritz brewery building in Barcelona, prepared for the bulthaup lunch at La Ricarda. The dish features the highly-valued breed of chicken from El Prat known as pota blava (“blue foot” in Catalan), raised in the delta of the Llobregat river, stewed with lemon and olives.
Ingredients
1 Prat chicken
1 l chicken and vegetable broth
150 ml olive oil
1 head of garlic
200 ml white wine
150 ml lemon juice
3 sprigs of thyme
50 g green olives, pitted
For the picada sauce:
3 ñoras (dried red peppers)
1/2 anise star
1/4 teaspoon juniper berries
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
100 ml honey
20 ml lemon juice
10 g black chocolate (80-90% cocoa)
100 g roasted almonds
For the lemon:
1 lemon
200 ml water
60 g brown sugar
Preparation
The chicken:
Clean the chicken, separate the carcass and use to make a broth with vegetables. Cut the remaining chicken into pieces and rub with salt and pepper. Heat a bit of oil in a cooking pot and brown the pieces. When they are partly done, add the head of garlic, cut in half, and continue to brown. Once you have browned the chicken pieces, add the white wine, lemon juice, and thyme. Simmer until all the liquid has evaporated and only the oil is left. Set aside.
The picada sauce:
Mix the dry ingredients in a grinder until they are a fine powder. Place the resulting powder in a blender together with the oil you used to brown the chicken, the honey and the lemon juice. Blend. If the mix seems too dry, add a bit of chicken broth. Set aside.
The lemon:
Cut the lemon in four wedges. Remove the seeds and blanch the pieces three times (placing them alternately in boiling water and cold water). Then place the slices in a saucepan with 200 ml of water, the 60 g of brown sugar and the 100 ml of lemon juice. Cook 30 to 50 minutes, adding water as the liquid evaporates.
Final preparation:
Place the pieces of chicken in a cooking pot and cover with the picada sauce. Add chicken broth until the chicken is almost covered. Cover and simmer for about 40 minutes. Add lemon wedges and olives. Cook for another 15 minutes.
Presentation:
Place the chicken pieces on a serving platter with the sauce. Add grated lemon rind, whole parsley leaves, pieces of green olives and coarsely chopped almonds. The result, with its almost alchemical complexity of flavors and aromas, will make up for all the effort involved. Enjoy!
