Chicken Vesuvio

Several weeks ago, my Mom and I started talking about what we were going to have for our family celebration of January birthdays (hers and mine).  She wanted something different.  Chicken Vesuvio rose to the top of the list of possibilities quickly.  It's something I have never made so I did some research.  So many recipes were for whole chickens or dark meat chicken and quite frankly, I don't like dark meat chicken.  After a little more research, I found 3 recipes that sounded appealing and what I made today was a combination of the three.

Keep in mind, I made 20 chicken breasts and roughly 8lbs of potatoes--so basically quadrupled the recipes as they were written.  It's labor intensive when you're making that much but it turned out fantastic so it was worth it.

I fried the chicken and potatoes in my wok.  It really worked well.  I have a cast iron Dutch oven which would have worked well if I had been making dinner for 4.

I started by peeling the potatoes I used russets.  I peeled them and cut them into spears.  For 4 servings, use 3-4 potatoes.  I set the potatoes aside in a pot of cold water to keep them from turning brown.

Each chicken breast was rinsed and patted dry and then dredged in a mixture of flour, dried basil, dried oregano, dried thyme, pepper, salt, a pinch of rosemary (I put my rosemary through a spice grinder) and a pinch of sage.

When you think of chicken Vesuvio, you think garlic.  Now, not everyone in my family likes garlic as much as I do so I tried to figure out how to get the fantastic garlic flavor without offending those who don't want to repel every vampire in a tri-state area.  I poured 2 tbsp. olive oil into the wok over medium heat and crushed some garlic cloves and tossed them into the wok along with the dredged chicken breasts four at a time.  I used 4 crushed garlic cloves for each set of four chicken breasts.  When they started to burn, I swapped them out for new ones.

Brown the chicken breasts approximately 4 minutes on each side.  Place chicken breasts in a roasting pan when browned.

When the chicken was done, I started with the potatoes, approximately a dozen spears at a time.  I added a little olive oil for each batch of potatoes and sprinkled some granulated garlic, dried basil, dried thyme, dried oregano, salt and pepper.  After 8-10 minutes the potatoes are browned.  I had so much chicken and potatoes, I had 3 roasting pans.  If you're making a smaller batch, I would put the potatoes and chicken in the same pan.

I deglazed the wok with 3 cups of white wine...I used a pinot grigio.  Once the wine reduced by half, I poured it over each of the three roasting pans.  Just before baking, I added about a half cup of chicken broth to each pan.  I baked the potatoes at 375 for 45 minutes and the chicken for 25 minutes.  Just before everything came out of the oven, I cooked 3 cups of peas in the microwave according to package directions.  I poured the peas over the chicken and potatoes and then sprinkled everything with minced fresh parsley.

I don't like to brag but this meal got rave reviews from the family and I am my own worst critic and thought it was the BOMB!