# Chicken w/ Vodka sauce, Fresh Peas, and Crispy Chicken Cracklings



## TATTRAT (Sep 24, 2012)

This is a meal kind of inspired by a dish my Pops did while he was up here a couple of weeks, helping take care of my crippled ass. My mom, who was here the week prior cooked a lot, and there were leftovers galore. Among the leftovers was half a roasted chicken. Well, chicken is chicken, it can be a boring, blah thing, or it can be elevated into something better than the sum of its' parts. This is one of those cases.

Last Friday, I did a roast bird,sorry no thread on it, I had a little calamity midway through involving knocking my pan of simmering jus with all the roasted neck bones, giblets, kidney, heart, and mirepoix all over me, my stove, my floor, everywhere . . .as a Chef, it was REALLY embarrassing. As a guy with a cane and a walker, maybe I was being a little ambitious. . .either way, the BIRD was fine, GREAT even, and the pan drippings/fond salvaged enough to make a very nice pan sauce, the leftovers of which made it into the recipe to follow.

*AND ON TO THE DISH:*

*What you will need:*
Half a roast chicken, any left over chicken, pulled/shredded. You could JUST as easily buy yourself some boneless skinless chicken thighs to brown off then simmer in the sauce, or and chicken part that you prefer. . . breast meat alone, even stewed in sauce will still get dry on ya though. 1 Half Onion, finely diced. 5 Cloves garlic, finely Minced, 1 bag of either Frozen Little Peas, or English peas. Butter, *AND OK SUE ME. . . I USED A PREFAB CANNED SAUCE!* DEAL WITH IT. Though, if you wanted to make Vodka sauce, it's simply sauteed onion, canned diced tomatoes(pureed), reduced vodka, cream and finished with butter, big whoop).I opted for the FAR more convenient, and surprisingly tasty Bertolli Brand Vodka Sauce. 

You can do this dish over Rice, Pasta, Gnocchi, hell. .. you could do it over a big slab of toasted bread, what you do with it, is up to you, it's cooking, not rocket science. This is a recipe/suggestion, not a blueprint.

As with most meals I like, A nice bread to go with the meal is a nice bonus, but not mandatory. For this, it was a simple demi loaf of French Bread.

*COOKING VESSEL:* I use my "Go to", "One Size Fits All" large sauté pan. 

*PREP:* 
Chicken:Pull the chicken, the more meat, the merrier. Mix the dark, and the white, it's fine. leave it kind of coarse, and rustic. It doesn't need to be perfect, but don't shred it into little, tiny, cat food like pieces. The wings, you can leave whole, and just throw 'em in there, but I wouldn't serve 'em, just have them as a Scooby Snack.  
The pulled, and reserved chicken, season a little with salt, fresh cracked pepper, a little dried basil, thyme, oregano.

Skins:***IMPORTANT*** For the Skin, Try to remove it in as large a pieces as you can, Normally, the whole underside will come off in one piece, as will the skin of the breast section.  In the pan you are going to use for the dish, BROWN THE SKIN OVER MEDIUM HEAT. Once the fat starts to really render, keep an eye on it. It can go from beautiful, to burnt quickly! Once the skins are golden and crisp, remove form pan and simply drain on paper towels, and allow to cool.

Onionice your onion. Don't leave it too big either, you want it to kind of melt, and get lost into the sauce.

Chicken Stock: If you have pan gravy, or stock from your bird, use it. I used my leftover, fat and all, just heated it up and had it reduced a little more to add more depth of flavor to the finished meal.

*READY TO GO!*

Bird, pulled and seasoned:







Skins, crispy, and resting:






Stock, just getting on the heat(it will heat and become clear and smell amazing):






Onion, diced






Sauce, ready, LOL


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## TATTRAT (Sep 24, 2012)

*Part ii*

*ON TO ZEEEEE COOOOKING!!!!!!!*

With the pan still hot from rendering out the chicken skin, I add a knob of butter to release some of the burnt, chickeny bits of goodness, and then quickly go in with the onion & garlic to stop the butter from browning. . . let the onion and garlic get caramelized. 






And in with the onion & Gahhhhlic






Now, you see the onions and what not have some good color on them, so here is where you go in with the bird. Please remember, you are just heating it through, not cremate it. The bird has been cooked once, no need to do it again, leave it moist and tender.

Toss well to incorporate:






Leave things to just heat through, and then, in with the sauce! I have also added in the refreshed chicken stock(you can use some canned to thin things out if you want). you can see the stock as the darker swirl of sauce going in to the pink sauce. . .






From here, it's pretty straight forward. Bring to a low simmer, Add in your frozen Small peas, or your Fresh English peas, the carry over heat will cook them. Please remember, don't over cook. Once the peas go in, you should ideally start to serve in like 5min. You want your peas to pop, not bu mush.






As mentioned, I did this batch over plain old steamed rice(with salt and pepper), nothing fancy. A nice bed of rice, a few service spoons of chicken, peas and sauce over the rice(the sauce gets soaked up quick, so sauce it up), and then, *THE BEST PART*, Garnish with Chopped crispy chicken skins, and a few fresh peas. 

A nice piece of bread, a nice glass of wine like a Pinot, or a buttery Chard(kill some of the acidic qualities), or, a decent beer, any IPA should do fine. 

Viola! Chicken in Vodka sauce, with English peas and Chicken Cracklings:


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## TATTRAT (Sep 24, 2012)

AAAAAAAAAAANNNNND Again, I am not trying to talk down to any of my DC Friends, I posted this on the Automotive board, where impact wrenches, wd-40, jb weld, and stinky garage guys need to have things in an easy manner. Like with the Boiled Dinner thread, just keepign it simple for the guys(seriously, there are like 4 women that post, out of a board of almost 30K people, LOL!)


I hope that you all enjoy it, and maybe even give it a try, I know it's not the traditional Penne A la Vodka, but honestly, this was pretty good!


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## PrincessFiona60 (Sep 25, 2012)

Mah-velous!  I keep saying the Bertolli is good jarred sauce.  I happen to have some rotisserie chicken in the fridge...and a jar of Bertolli.


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## TATTRAT (Sep 25, 2012)

PrincessFiona60 said:


> Mah-velous!  I keep saying the Bertolli is good jarred sauce.  I happen to have some rotisserie chicken in the fridge...and a jar of Bertolli.



I'll be honest, it's not a hassle to make it from scratch, at all, but with being in the shape I am in still, I said screw it. It was pretty darn good for a canned sauce. The addition of the chicken stock from the bird REALLY added a nice richness to it though, so I was glad to have doctored it up.

I WILL be more open minded to canned prepared sauces, and you are right PrincessFiona, it was a GREAT jarred sauce!


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## PrincessFiona60 (Sep 25, 2012)

TATTRAT said:


> I'll be honest, it's not a hassle to make it from scratch, at all, but with being in the shape I am in still, I said screw it. It was pretty darn good for a canned sauce. The addition of the chicken stock from the bird REALLY added a nice richness to it though, so I was glad to have doctored it up.
> 
> I WILL be more open minded to canned prepared sauces, and you are right PrincessFiona, it was a GREAT jarred sauce!



Their Marinara is a nice starting point for many dishes, with 12 hour shifts, I don't have a lot of time for prep.


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