Basque Chicken Stew

"Poultry is for the cook what canvas is for the painter."
–Brillat-Savarin











It is written by the great Joel Robuchon that basquaise food refers to "any dish combining local

country ham, tomatoes and peppers...It is the peppers that give their local name pipers to the specialty – the piperade – a tradition that cannot be separated from that of the Espelette pepper, which is the cornerstone of local cuisine."

Basque Chicken Stew

And so, armed with even this small morsel of culinary history, it was fun to tinker for the first time with a few of the traditional ingredients of the French Basque region – peppers, tomatoes, and bacon (ham), to create an aroma and taste that would come to transport the cooking imagination.  Two likewise traditional cooking techniques were asked for in this recipe.  The first is the roasting of the peppers before cut into long slices, a process, it is described, that heightens the natural sweetness and

juicy texture inherent.  Red peppers are nearly completely transformed in the process of cooking, going from its raw state – a sort of crisp astringency – to a state of soft subtle flavor. The other technique is the peeling and seeding of ripe tomatoes, which allows for the tenderest and juiciest cores to be used.  Once bacon is added to this essential duo of the recipe, the heavier proteins follow, yet the sweet, the

smoky, and the acid is firmly established and comes to coat both the chicken pieces and potatoes as they tender.  The recipe asks that the onion and bacon fat begin the cooking process of quartered potatoes, adding parsely, thyme and a bay leaf for the aromatics, then add your variety of chicken pieces, some flour for thickening, white wine and chicken stock, preparing the stew for its fairly short simmer on the burner for somewhere around 25 minutes, flipping the chicken, and finishing with another 20 minutes at least.  As the chicken and potatoes soften and cook, the under contents also soften turning this dish to a near soup, yet saved from that form by the addition of liquid.

As you watch, a learning experience is being acquired.  Just as you come to learn how soup forms its many kinds of bases depending upon stocks and waters, a stew, it seems, has its own criteria of thicker textures and certainly more full portions of meat and in this case potatoes, but none the less also maintains enough liquid form to elevate itself from a standard portioned meal.  As you picture the terrain of the Basque country, perhaps overlooking the Bay of Biscay, one can easily imagine settling in at a bistro table somewhere along the countryside enjoying a stew that smells and tastes like the farmhouse kitchens surrounding.