Thursday, August 26, 2010

Chicken & Leeks

We had leeks the other night. They were good. We had this recipe the first time many years ago. It is one of the simplest recipes out there. Cook chicken. Cook leeks. Dump wine. Simmer. Done.

Start with some leeks. I like to cut them into 1/2 moon shapes. Give them a super wash in a bowl of water, then lift them out to drain them. After washing all the sand out of and off of them, you don't want to dump the dirty, sandy water back on them.

Cook your chicken. Usually you can use whatever chicken bits you have. Last night I had chicken tenderloins. Chicken breast are fine. I'm going to say chicken thighs are even better. Give whatever a quick saute to brown and start the cooking. When browned on both sides remove to a plate, don't worry about being cooked through it will finish cooking later.


A pause. What to serve this with? I think rice is the best option. You want something starchy/grainy to give the final sauce a place to go. You could use a pasta. Couscous. A steamed green veggie would be fine too. This time I used a hearty whole grain style rice that had all sorts of crunchy bits in it. It was good. Nutty.


Here we go. After the chicken was browned, I tossed the leeks into the pan and stirred them around for a minute or two. You want them to just start to sweat. Then, dump in a dry white wine. Add the chicken back in. Add wine to just cover the chicken. Bring to a low simmer, cover and walk about for 10-20 minutes. Do something else! But don't forget about it though.


Spoon the chicken and leeks, with sauce over your rice. Garnish with some chopped parsley if you like. Enjoy!

1 comment:

DancerInDC said...

Gotta love the simplicity here!

I really liked having it with this kind of rice. Next time I'm curious to try it with egg noodles or some kind of rigate pasta.