Friday, April 10, 2009

Chicken Provencale sans Basil

I had plans the other evening to make one of our favorite stand by meals. Chicken Provencale. It's simple and lovely. But there is one important requirement. Fresh Basil. Without it, the dish just doesn't have the depth of flavor required and it basically looses all it's appeal.

Well, wouldn't you know it. I spend the day talking about how excited I am to be making this and the fresh basil will be so awesome, that when I get home to start prepping...the basil? It is black, moldy and down right disgusting.

Boo hoo. I basically gave up right there. I was defeated. But I continued...we needed to eat dinner.

The veg are based on the colors of the Italian flag...Roma tomatoes, Green peppers and White onion...all diced to the same size. Don't forget to seed the tomatoes.


The chicken gets a light coating of seasoned flour. This serves a few different purposes. 1) It helps the process of the chicken cooking until golden brown and delicious. 2) Bits of the flour will stay in the pan and help to add some body to the final sauce. 3) It will also provide a tiny bit of protection to the chicken, giving a little bit of a window to save the cook from over-cooking the chicken to the point of being dry and nasty.


Lovely color and nice flavor.


After the chicken cooks, the onions, pepper and garlic.


Add the tomatoes and white wine. Simmer.


Add cooked angel hair pasta, toss and serve.


I used dried basil to substitute for the fresh. It didn't work. Sad. Also, after the over-salting fiasco of the other night, I must have felt gun shy and didn't use enough salt either.

Oh well, we still ate it and it was still pretty good, just not great.

3 comments:

Dancer in DC said...

It wasn't ideal, but still better than what I get in a restaurant half the time.

KevinH said...

What is your opinion regarding the quality of basil stored frozen in olive oil?

ScottE. said...

KevinH: I haven't seen that product, so I'm not sure how it will be. I've heard of some folks using frozen basil in certain types of dishes. My feeling on frozen basil, use it in a recipe where the basil will be cooked & heated. I wouldn't use it in pesto or dressings.

That's my guess...

Thanks for the question.