I was looking for a new chicken recipe, and I came across Basquaise Chicken, which is cooked in the manner of the French region of Pays Basque (Southwest of France). I had a vague memory of eating it in my childhood, and I remembered it being quite tasty. So I tried an easy recipe for Basquaise chicken, and the result was amazing! It was even more delicious than I remembered it! It is now my favorite chicken recipe! Light, healthy, tasty chicken! Enjoy!
Utensils
The Basquaise chicken is cooked with tomatoes and red peppers, on low heat, in a dutch oven (cocotte). The dutch oven allows for the flavors to mingle in a unique and wonderful way. First, the flavors of tomato and red pepper mingle with onion and garlic, and then, all flavors mingle with the chicken so that the chicken itself takes on the flavors of the tomato-red pepper-onion-garlic mix. The chicken even takes on a slightly reddish color. This is the magic of the dutch oven, and it is what makes basquaise chicken so delicious!
If you do not already have a dutch oven, you will need one for this recipe. It is a worthwhile investment, as there are so many wonderful recipes that require a dutch oven. I bought this one:
Recipe
You can find the recipe in French here. (Please note, I made a few minor changes).
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 60 minutes |
| Servings |
people
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- 1 chicken (or several pieces of chicken breasts and drumsticks)
- 3 onion (or already minced onion)
- 3 garlic bulbs (or already minced garlic)
- 2.2 lbs tomatoes (1kg)
- 1.5 lbs red pepper bell (700g)
- 1 pack fresh thyme
- 1 pack fresh rosemary
- 1 pack fresh bay leaf
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- salt (as needed)
- pepper (as needed)
Ingredients
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- If you bought a whole chicken, cut the chicken in several pieces. (If you do not want to cut a whole chicken, you can just buy several pieces of chicken breasts and drumsticks). Cut the red pepper in stripes and remove the seeds. Mince the onion and garlic (unless you bought already minced onion and garlic).
- In a dutch oven, heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the red peppers, the onion and the garlic, and cook for 5 minutes on low heat, stirring the whole time with a wooden spoon.
- Remove the skin from the tomatoes as well as the hard center of the tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes in pieces. Add the tomatoes to the red peppers in the dutch oven. Cook for 20 minutes, on low heat, with the lid closed.
- In the meantime, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Cook the chicken in a skillet with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, until the outside of the chicken is no longer pink and turns light brown.
- Once the tomato-pepper mix is done cooking, add the chicken to the mix in the dutch oven. Add the thyme, rosemary and bay leaf (put as much or as little as you want, depending on how much you like herbs). Cook everything together in the dutch oven with the lid closed, on low heat, for 35 minutes. (The basquaise chicken is usually served with rice so you can use that time to cook rice).
- Serve with rice, and enjoy!
To make your life easier, I recommend buying several pieces of chicken breasts and drumsticks instead of a whole chicken. I also recommend buying already minced garlic and already minced onion.
Also, to remove the skin of the tomatoes, you can put the tomatoes in boiling water for 1–2 minutes so the skin easily comes off.
Bon Appétit!
French Mom