Ingredients
Chicken and pepper sauce
Alternative
½ US cup / 118.29 ml light chicken stock or broth, at the four-serving base
For serving
Method
- Season the chicken with salt, black pepper and Espelette or cayenne.
- Heat the olive oil in the pot over medium-high heat for two minutes, then melt in the butter. Brown the chicken on the skin side for five minutes and transfer it to a plate.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook the peppers and onion for ten minutes, then add the tomatoes and cook until their liquid has reduced by half.
- Pour in the white wine and scrape the bottom of the pot. Let the liquid reduce by half.
- Add the water and bouillon cube, or the source’s stock alternative. Return the chicken and its juices to the pot, cover and simmer gently for 25 minutes.
- Lift the chicken onto a serving platter. Boil the sauce over high heat for five minutes to reduce it, check the seasoning and stir in the parsley. Pour over the chicken and serve with rice pilaf.
Equipment
Large pot or Dutch oven with lid; Plate; Serving platter; Wooden spoon
Notes
- Piment d’Espelette: use cayenne if you cannot find it. The substitution gives the dish heat, with a different pepper flavour.
- Stock alternative: at the original four-serving batch, half a US cup of light chicken stock or broth replaces the half bouillon cube. Add the separately listed half US cup of water as well. Adjust both liquids with the batch.
- Pan juices: scrape the bottom of the pot thoroughly when the wine goes in, and return any juices from the chicken’s resting plate with the meat.
- Sauce: give the tomatoes and wine their reductions before the covered simmer. Lift the chicken out for the final five-minute boil, then pour the thickened sauce over it and serve with rice pilaf.
Photos
1 photo
About this dish
The French Basque Country, or Iparralde, has a tradition of cooking onions, tomatoes and mild peppers down into piperade. Poulet basquaise brings that vegetable mixture to chicken, with piment d’Espelette lending the dried pepper’s characteristic fragrance. The sweet peppers and the seasoning play different parts: one supplies the substance of the sauce, the other its gentle warmth.
Anthony Bourdain knew the Basque Country through repeated visits and friendships with its chefs. His recipe gets its depth from the pot. Browning the chicken leaves savoury residue behind, the vegetables soften in those juices, and white wine lifts the browned bits into the sauce. Reducing both tomatoes and wine concentrates the flavour before the covered simmer.
He was also quite happy to reach for a bouillon cube. That unfussy choice belongs comfortably in a family dish built around chicken, vegetables and a sauce worth spooning over rice.
Recipe and cooking notes adapted from Food & Wine.