Chicken Savoy

We had a fabulous meal last night.  The chicken savoy was de-lic-ious! And the crispy potatoes, and the broccoli rabe, and the Calandra's bread...not to mention the beautiful red velvet cupcakes my friend, Noreen, brought; and finally, the previously-posted cranberry vanilla coffeecake (this might just be my new favorite cake).  The cran-van cake was so good I had a piece again this morning with coffee. 

Noreen has been kind of obsessed (but in a good way) with red velvet cupcakes lately. Trying them out for an upcoming dinner party (see photo of cupcakes on really cool cupcake stand).  The group consensus on the 'cakes was that the actual cake texture was really nice - a very light crumb, and the 7-minute frosting was good, too, but as a whole, red velvet was just OK. What is all the fuss about red velvet cake?  Does anybody know?  I see recipes for red velvet cake everywhere (almost as much as I see cupcakes everywhere - the hot, new bakery trend).  If you know, please let the rest of us in on the secret.

Anyway, on to the chicken (photo above of finished product is all that was left from almost two whole chickens for four people!).  Last night after I posted about the pending dinner, I had two e-mail requests for the recipe. So, here it is.  Please keep in mind that this is an adaptation of the original; as such, we don't have exact quantities here.  You sort of need to "wing" it...

Chicken Savoy

1 whole chicken, cut-up

1 bulb garlic

olive oil

salt, pepper, oregano

grated Parmesan cheese

red wine vinegar

Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees.  In a large enamel or stainless steel pan, place cut-up chicken parts, skin side up.

In a mini-food prep, grind up the garlic to a fine mince.  Place in small bowl.  To this bowl, add olive oil until you have a 50/50 ratio between garlic & olive oil.  Spoon the garlic mixture over chicken (chicken should be very wet with the garlic mixture - see photo).  Add salt, pepper, and ALOT of oregano on top of garlic mixture.  Coat chicken with grated cheese (the chicken should be almost totally white when you are done - see photo).

Bake in oven for about 1 hour until chicken is very dark brown.  Remove pan from oven and carefully drain out about half the oil.  Place pan on stove top, cook two minutes.  Pour some red wine vinegar in, boil, reduce.  Done!  Serve with either crispy potatoes or some nice orzo, maybe some sauteed spinach, and definitely good, crusty Italian bread.

I served a wonderful Pinot Noir that I must tell you about.  It was Block 906 - a 2007 Pinot from Santa Lucia Highlands Vineyard.  This vineyard is in the Monterray Bay area of California.  The wine was terrific - red berry and floral notes with an elegant finish.