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Sunday supper
By Ann | February 11, 2008
And so begins our adventures with The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics. My first foray was this dish — braised chicken with olives, carrots and chickpeas — which seemed perfect for last night’s blustery weather. I substituted skinless, bone-in breasts for the thighs and dried cranberries for the raisins.
I liked the low-fat braising technique for the chicken — browned, then slowly simmered in the oven, which turned even the breast meat tender. I liked the addition of chickpeas, which gave the dish a pleasing, healthful heartiness. I liked the brothy, wine-enhnaced sauce drizzled over whole wheat couscous. I even liked my substitution of dried cranberries — even though I generally dislike fruit and meat — they married nicely with the fresh ginger.
But there was something missing from this dish. It wasn’t bland, but it lacked sparkle… it was just… boring. I would not make this again.
P.S. I just ate some leftovers, which were improved slightly by sriracha (but what isn’t?).
Topics: Cooking the Books |
One Response to “Sunday supper”
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February 12th, 2008 at 10:29 am
I liked this one better than CtB. The chicken meat was ideally tender and juicy. But CtB is right — there was a lack of pizzazz, even if the overall effect (nice hot meal but not a food bomb) was pleasant enough. Maybe if the olives had had a saltier taste they could have brought out the contrast with the dried cranberries in a more dramatic way …