Old standby

Back in my pre-nomad days I started a tradition of picking up a new ethnic cookbook each January.  One year was Indian, another Japanese (total fail on this one- the list of kitchen utensils made me give up before even attempting one dish) and another Cuban.

I bought this tiny little “Cuban Homecooking” cookbook and another glossy, fancier one. You can imagine which one I loved.

One of our favorites from that little cookbook was Cuban style chicken and I used to make it quite frequently at home. 

It’s an easy dish, but you’ll need about an hour for the chicken.  Which will totally be worth it because it’s super tender.

You’ll need:

1-2lbs of chicken breast- cut into chunks (original recipe calls for chicken on the bone- either works)

1 large white onion -thickly sliced into rings

2 teaspoons of evoo

1 cup of orange juice (original recipe calls for sour orange juice- if you can find it then skip the lime)

2 tablespoons of lime juice

1 cup of white wine

2 tablespoons of oregano

Water

Heat up the oil and then caramelize the onions. Really, really brown these guys.  You want them super caramelized.

Then mix the juices, wine and oregano and pour into the onion pan.  This will deglaze the pan so scrape up all the yummy onion bits.

Throw in the chicken  and then add enough water to cover everything…

Bring this up to a boil and then lower the temp until it is simmering. You’re going to simmer it until all the liquid cooks out.  This takes a while- like 30-40 minutes, but you only need to stir occasionally.  Just let it bubble away and don’t cover it.  When the chicken is cooked you can salt and pepper to taste.

Once the liquid is gone let the the onions and chicken caramelize for a few more minutes.  I serve it over rice and usually with black beans, but it’s also tasty wrapped in a tortilla…

A little tangy, a little sweet and very tender and moist- it’s something yummy and different to do with chicken.