Greek chicken with tomatoes and ouzo

Chicken with tomatoes and orzo

Adapted from “Eating the Greek Way” by Fedon Alexander Lindberg. There’s a whole lot of health stuff in this, since it’s written by a doctor. But if you get to eat this dish, who cares?

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 chicken, cut up into 8 pieces (I used all one kind for even cooking)

6 garlic cloves, chopped

1½ teaspoons fennel seeds

2 15-ounce cans whole plum tomatoes

½ cup chicken broth

½ cup ouzo or other anise-flavored liqueur

1 tablespoon dried oregano

12 black Kalamata olives, pitted

Crumbled feta cheese for garnish

Method

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper and brown on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside.

Saute garlic and fennel seeds for 30 seconds (the most awesome aroma). Add ouzo or its equivalent. We used Sambuca because that’s what we had on hand. Either one will foam up massively, so you’ll be glad if you have a deep pan. Add tomatoes (including juice), broth and oregano. Break up tomatoes into smaller chunks with a spoon. Return chicken to pan, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Flip chicken over, add olives and raise heat to high. Boil until liquid has thickened (not thick, just noticeably thicker), another 10 minutes or so.

Serve over something to soak up the sauce and sprinkle with feta. Unlike your average recipe, which would claim this serves 8, since there are 8 pieces, it generously suggests 4. We pretty much split the difference, so I’d say 6-ish, depending on your male-female guest ratio.

Rating: This was an unequivocal success. Really nice combination of flavors, without any one element being overwhelming. Fennel can be a bit on the strong side, and this dish had a double-shot, but it’s still just a note in the collective.