Chicken Alla Pitocca
by Lidia Bastianich on Jan 22, 2021
In Lidia Celebrates America: A Salute to First Responders, former chef, now volunteer fire-fighter in Northern California, Jacob Mual asks Lidia for a recipe to add to the book he was writing, 'Functional Food for the First Responders'. Her contribution was Chicken alla Picotta, and Jacob prepares it with Lidia on a Zoom call during the COVID pandemic.
Recipe from Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy (Alfred A Knopf, 2009).
You will need a food processor; a heavy saucepan, such as enameled cast iron,10 inches wide, 3-to-4-quart capacity, with a cover.
- Prep time
- 30 minutes
- Total time
- 60 minutes
- Course
- Entree
Tags
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 1 cup onion cut in 1-inch chunks
- 1 cup carrot cut in 1-inch chunks
- 1 cup celery cut in 1-inch chunks
- 2 plump garlic cloves, peeled
- ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 fresh bay leaf
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 5 cups hot chicken or turkey stock, plus more if needed
- 2 cups Italian short-grain rice, such as arborio, carnaroli, or vialone nano for finishing
- 2 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
- ½ cup grated grana padano, plus more for passing
Instructions
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Trim any excess fat from the chicken thighs, and cut them into 1-inch chunks.
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Using a food processor, mince the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic into a fine-textured pestata. Pour the olive oil in the saucepan, and set over medium-high heat.
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Stir in the pestata, and season with 1 teaspoon of the salt.
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Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the pestata has dried and begins to stick to the bottom of the pan.
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Toss in the chicken pieces and the bay leaf, and sprinkle over it the remaining 2 teaspoons salt. Tumble and stir the chicken in the pan until browned and caramelized all over, about 4 minutes.
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Raise the heat, pour in the white wine, and cook, stirring and scraping up the browned bits in the pan, until the wine has almost completely evaporated.
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Pour in the hot stock, stirring, then all the rice.
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Bring to the boil over high heat, cover the pan, and reduce the heat to keep the rice bubbling gently.
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Cook for about 14 minutes, or until both the rice and the chicken chunks are fully cooked and the consistency is creamy (see box).
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Turn off the heat, drop in the butter pieces, and stir vigorously until thoroughly amalgamated, then stir in the parsley and 1/2 cup of grated cheese.
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Spoon the rice into warm pasta bowls and serve immediately, passing additional grated cheese at the table.