Chicken with Herb Pistou

Ferry Building Farmer's Market

Recently, I made BA's cover recipe, "roast chicken with herb pistou and farro with roasted squash" - I just dumbed it down a little so that I could actually make it. I will preface this recipe by saying that it was a success, in my opinion (not all of my cooking endeavors are, but I try to spare you the ones that turn out terribly and aren't worth repeating). I will share my version below and give you a link to the BA-version here.

Dahlias at the market

I combined a few tablespoons olive oil, a couple cloves of finely chopped garlic, chopped parsley, thyme, cilantro, the zest of a lemon and salt and cracked pepper. I popped the chicken in a large glass container (I used two legs and a breast of chicken) and doused it with the marinade. Away that went into the fridge while I got started on the rest of the meal.

For the farro: I skipped the "sauteeing" step and tossed my diced acorn squash with a little olive oil, salt and pepper before throwing it into a 375 degree oven for about a half hour. *Note: I would be using onion in this recipe but I was happily sharing this meal with someone who doesn't get along well with onions :).

From here on out I more or less followed the recipe:

- Toast farro in oil coated iron skillet

- Remove farro and set aside

- Warm two - three cups chicken stock with two cups of water in a pot

-Sautee garlic, add a bit of white wine

- Return farro to the pan 

- Add in the stock in 1/2-cup increments, waiting until the liquid is absorbed before adding the next ladle-ful

For the pistou: I am not always a big pesto fan, so I went light on the oil in my version of the pistou

I blanched 1 cup parsley, 3/4 cup cilantro and 3/4 cup basil. Plunge the herbs into a bath of ice-water so that they retain their lovely green color. While my herbs were cooling off I chopped up a very small amount of garlic which I threw into a blender with my herbs (squeezed dry) and 3/4 ice water. Once the herbs were blended, I slowly drizzled in one tablespoon olive oil with blender running. Pistou finished!

To finish the chicken, I heated up a little oil in my cast iron skillet, poured off the marinade and threw the chicken in. I browned the chicken on the stove top and once golden I threw it into a 350 degree oven for 20 or 25 mins.