Spanish Chicken in Saffron and Almonds Sauce | Pollo en pepitoria
To me this is one of the best chicken dishes in the Spanish traditional gastronomy and it is as old fashioned as it gets. So much so that it is hard to even find it in restaurants anymore. It’s heavily influenced by the Arabs gastronomy as it has almonds and spices. This is a real grandma’s dish, that is why it’s one of my favourites.
INGREDIENTS
1.6kg chicken
A long drizzle of Spanish olive oil
1 Spanish onion, finely chopped
1 glass of white wine
1 bay leaf
1 litre chicken stock
3 sprigs of parsley
2 slices of bread
1 pinch of black pepper
A pinch of salt
1 tea spoon of cumin
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 pinch of saffron
2 tbsp blanched almonds
5 sprigs of thyme
1 egg
Preparation
Place a small saucepan over low heat. Pour the chicken stock and add the saffron. Let it infuse and warm up for later.
In a separate small saucepan filled with water over high heat, boil the egg for 7 minutes. Cool down, peel and separate the egg white from the egg yolk.
In a large frying pan over medium heat, pour the olive oil and toast the almonds and slices of bread until golden (5 minutes) and set aside. Fry the parsley for 1 minute and set aside. Keep some almonds for sprinkling over the dish at the end. Cut the bread in rough pieces and blitz into a paste on a food processor together with the parsley, the egg yolk and a bit of chicken stock. Keep it for later.
Cut the chicken into 8 pieces. Bring the heat up to it’s highest and start searing all the side of the chicken pieces until dark golden. Set aside.
On the same pan fry the garlic, onion and bay leave until golden brown. Sprinkle the spices and stir for 1 minute, pour the glass of wine, deglaze the bottom of the pan and reduce down. Add the paste and pour the hot chicken stock. Give a good mix to dilute any lumps, bring the chicken back into the pan and let it simmer all together for about 30 minutes over low heat.
Chop a sprig of parsley and the egg white and sprinkle over the top with some toasted almonds.
