Baked Chicken with Bacon, Mushrooms, and Pearl Onions

Was my last post really in early January? I'm so sorry, my dear readers and friends, that I have let my blog stagnate for so long. Yet again, work has gotten in the way. However, this time it was a freelance project that I've been slaving at for the past two years. It has finally come to a conclusion and the Husband and I have agreed that I will not be taking on any freelance work for a while, so I can be focus more on my various hobbies--which really help to keep me sane.

I've still been cooking away, but not so much during the week. Tonight, I bought salmon stuffed with crab meat, and I will smash some new potatoes, saute some spinach and call it a night. Tomorrow is the Husband's birthday, and he has requested lasagna. I've decided to make a new brownie recipe instead of cake (it's just the two of us tomorrow night--we've already celebrated with various friends at dinner all weekend long). The Husband loves brownies, and these promise to be very "fudgie".

In other developments, I've just gotten my first writing gig for a new local start up magazine. The entire issue will be about urban gardening (a favorite topic of mine), and I'll be assigned the task of writing about community gardening. I won't be paid anything, but I'm looking forward to having my first byline. Here's a picture of two of my window boxes from the spring:



Here in the northeast, the weather has suddenly become bitterly cold. Last weekend the Husband and I were stuck in the blizzard that dumped over two feet of snow in Central Park. We were driving back from a skiing weekend and saw a lot of frightening driving and accidents on the New York State Thruway. Irony of it all was that there wasn't enough snow upstate that weekend for us to go skiing, so we just ate a drank in the cabin. The Baked Chicken recipe below would be perfect if you were stuck away in a cabin for the weekend with friends. It's very easy to make, and all you have to do is throw everything together in a big pot and put it in the oven. A word of caution: it takes about twice as long in the oven to bake as the recipe states, so keep on checking the chicken to make sure it's cooked all the way through. It's okay to err on the overcooked side with this recipe--the chicken stays moist no matter what!

Baked Chicken with Bacon, Mushrooms, and Pearl Onions
Serves 4

One 3-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 pound slab bacon, cut into 1/2 inch dice
12 cloves garlic, unpeeled
16 pearl onions, peeled
24 white mushrooms, trimmed
1 cup dry white wine
15 sprigs assorted herbs (such as parsley, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, and sage)
1 to 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour or cornstarch, optional

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Wash the chicken pieces under cold running water and pat dry with paper towels. Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper. Set aside.

2. Heat the olive oil and bacon over medium-high heat in a large, heavy-bottomed pot large enough to hold all of the ingredients. Cook until the bacon has browned and rendered enough fat to coat the bottom of the pot, about 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain, leaving as much fat as possible in the pot.

3. Add the chicken pieces, skin side down, and brown all over in the bacon fat, 4 to 5 minutes per side. (You may need to do this in batches.) Return the bacon to the pan, along with the garlic, onions, mushrooms, wine, and herb sprigs. Cover the post and transfer it to the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the cover and bake for another 20 minutes.

4. Use tongs or a slotted spoon to transfer the chicken and vegetables from he pot to a warm platter. As you do, discard the herb sprigs. Skim any grease from the surface of the sauce, and then whisk in the flour or cornstarch to thicken it, if desired.

Variations:
Baked Chicken with Red Wine, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, and Pearl Onions:
Make this with red wine instead of white wine and add 5 chopped, seasoned plum tomatoes before adding the chicken to the pot in Step 3.

Game Bird with Bacon, Mushrooms, and Pearl Onions:
You can substitute pheasant or guinea hen for the chicken, but bear in mind that they're leaner and therefore cook in a slightly shorter amount of time. For a more pronounced mushroom flavor, add 1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms (do not reconstitute them first) along with the bacon in Step 3.

This recipe is adapted from Tom Valenti's Soups, Stews, and One-Pot Meals, which I bought on the sale table, at The Strand.