Chicken Provencal

I put the bean/tomato/olive mixture in the foreground, because it's really the showstopping part of this number.

Chicken Provencal

Adapted from “Two Dudes, One Pan” by dudes Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo. The gimmick of this book is food cooked in one pan using the method appropriate to each, from the nonstick skillet to Dutch oven to roasting pan. The premise is you don’t need a lot of equipment to cook good food. The food porn is enough to make me overlook the table of contents typography train wreck.

Ingredients:

¼ cup flour mixed with ½ teaspoon salt

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts

¼ cup canola oil

6 tablespoons butter, divided

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

6 tablespoons white wine

3 large tomatoes, chopped

½ cup chopped green olives

1 anchovy fillet, finely chopped

1 15-ounce can butter beans, drained and rinsed

6 basil leaves, torn

Method:

Heat oil in large skillet. Dredge chicken in flour mixture. Brown chicken on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside.

Drain off fat. Add half the butter to the skillet. Brown garlic in butter for 1 minute. Add wine, tomatoes, olives, anchovy and cook until sauce thickens. Add butter beans and remaining butter. Return chicken to pan, cook until chicken is cooked through, 10-15 minutes.

Serve chicken and butter bean mixture topped with torn basil leaves.

Rating: Yum. The chicken is fine, but the butter bean/olive/tomato mixture is mouthwateringly mouthwatering, to quote “A Year in Provence,” which seems fitting in this case. The anchovy is a subtle background hint, so anchovy-phobes needn’t shudder.

Sides: Endive, orange and Roquefort salad, yet another new recipe from "Barefoot Contessa Foolproof." This is the first one I've tried that wasn't. With a vinaigrette of fresh orange juice and zest, olive oil and white wine vinegar over Belgian endive, toasted walnuts, chopped red apple, and orange and arugula you would think it could hardly fail. But it just didn't seem to come together as a salad; everything but the arugula mushed together and the dressing seemed too runny to coat the arugula. Since I wasn't impressed, I won't repeat the recipe, but if you're interested in trying to improve upon it, the original recipe is here.