Ready for something Noir?
A Pinch of Salt
By Donna Marie-Riani
Beautiful. Smooth. Medium bodied.
Sweet, but not too sweet.
I could easily be talking about a person, but I’m not. I’m describing Oregon Pinot Noir wine. Because Pinot Noir grapes have very specific needs, they can’t grow just anywhere. Oregon has several valleys that are ideal to grow this variety.
There is a French term, terroir, that speaks to the climate, the soil and the terrain needed to grow something. Terroir is about creating the ideal place for the grapes to be sheltered, nurtured and harvested.
These valleys in Oregon have the perfect rich soil, the right climate and the right elevation and slope to grow this amazing grape. It seems as if it was Oregon’s destiny to make Pinot Noir wine.
There are many different vineyards in Oregon that produce Pinot Noir. Each makes it with different characteristics. Some have more pronounced fruity notes like strawberries. Some have earthy notes of mushrooms and some have floral qualities.
The people who tend to the vineyards, the winemakers, vintners or vigneron, another beautiful French word, are living and breathing these grapes — monitoring, fertilizing and irrigating. Deciding when to harvest and when to prune so that the best bottle of wine can be made.
I love a hearty, one-pot meal. They often have bold rich flavors that develop and concentrate when cooked down and my favorite part, beside the flavor of course, is the minimal clean up.
When you make this recipe, serve it with a few slices of bread to make sure not one drop of sauce is left behind. Or, you can serve this chicken on a bed of pasta, mashed potatoes or polenta.
Chicken with Pinot Noir
• 2 tablespoons olive or avocado oil
• Salt, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste
• 2 split chicken breasts or 4 chicken thighs, bone in and skin on
• 1 small yellow onion, medium dice
• 2 large carrots, cut into 2-inch chunks
• 6 cloves of garlic, each cut in 2 pieces
• 1/2 cup of canned crushed tomatoes
• 3/4 cup pinot noir
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon softened butter
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Season the chicken all over with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.
In a Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the chicken, skin side down. Resist the urge to move the chicken. Leave it for about 5 minutes to allow the skin to brown. Turn and brown the other side for about 5 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
To the drippings in the pan add the onions and carrots. If the pan looks a little dry, feel free to add one more tablespoon of oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent.
Add the garlic to the pan and cook for about 30 seconds. You should be able to smell the garlic at this point but it shouldn’t be brown.
Stir in the crushed tomatoes, the wine and the chicken stock. Turn the heat up to high and boil the sauce for 2 minutes. Make sure to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. You want these in your sauce.
Turn off the heat and stir in the thyme and return the browned chicken, skin side down, to the sauce. Place the lid on the Dutch oven and transfer to your preheated oven. Bake for 1 hour.
While the chicken is baking, combine the butter and the flour in a small bowl. Use a fork to mash them together to form a paste. This is called a roux and is used to thicken the sauce.
After an hour, take the Dutch oven out, remove the lid, and place it back on the stovetop over medium heat. Stir in the roux. Allow it to simmer for two minutes to thicken.
Place the chicken into two bowls and spoon over the sauce.