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As Rach explains, a fricassee is a French braised chicken in white sauce and means a combination of to fry or "frire" and cut up. Here, she makes a Spanish-style "red" fricassee with tomatoes, sweet paprika and smoked paprika. Rach adds sherry, which lends nice depth of flavor, but you can substitute sherry vinegar. She cooks the fricassee in a tagine (here's the one Rach has), which is like a Dutch oven with a conical-shaped top, but says you could also use a cast-iron skillet and just cover the pan. The dish would go great with rice or crusty bread and a big green salad.
Pro Tip from Rach: The magic ingredient in the dish is the sofrito (Spanish for "to lightly fry"). This combination of sauteed aromatic ingredients, such as onions, peppers, tomatoes, spices and herbs, is a staple in Spanish, Caribbean and Latin American cooking. It's used to flavor beans, rice, stews, soups, meats and fish. Rach, who likes to add it to scrambled eggs, suggests making double or triple the amount to have extra on hand. The sofrito keeps, tightly sealed in the fridge, for about a month or more.
For other Spanish-inspired chicken dishes, check out Smoky Spanish Chicken with Peppers + Roasted Potatoes and Spanish Chicken Thighs with Tomato and Saffron Rice with Almonds.
Ingredients
For the Spanish-Style Sofrito:
- ¼ cup EVOO
- 1 large Spanish yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 Cubanelle pepper, finely chopped
- 1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, finely chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 bulb garlic (6 cloves), finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 2 tablespoons sundried tomato paste
- ¼ pound minced sliced Serrano ham
- 3 tablespoon capers
- 1 ripe tomato, peeled and chopped
For the Fricassee:
- 8-10 large bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (2 ½ pounds)
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons EVOO
- 2 pounds Russet potatoes (2 large), peeled and diced 1-inch
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 batch/cup Spanish-Style Sofrito
- 2 roasted red peppers, chopped ½-inch
- 2 tablespoons paprika
- 1 tablespoon pimenton or smoked paprika
- ½ cup dry sherry
- 1 cup Spanish white Rioja or other dry white wine
- 1 ½ cups chicken bone broth or stock
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- One 14-ounce can crushed fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 cup small Spanish olives with pimento
- ½ cup flat parsley, chopped
Yield
Serves: 4
Preparation
For the Spanish-style sofrito, heat EVOO in medium skillet over medium-high heat, add onions and peppers and season with salt and pepper. Add bay, soften a couple of minutes, add garlic, oregano and tomato paste and stir again. Add ham and cook 1 minute, then add fresh tomato and stir. Reduce heat to low and cook 4 to 5 minutes, remove bay and transfer to small bowl.
For the fricassee, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat EVOO over medium-high heat, add chicken and brown well, about 8 minutes, then remove. Add potatoes to drippings and lightly brown, season with salt and pepper and add bay leaves. Add sofrito and roasted peppers, season with paprika, then add sherry and stir a minute.
Add wine and bone broth or stock. Bring to a boil 1 minute, cover and soften potatoes 5 to 6 minutes. Uncover and stir in tomato paste, then crushed tomatoes, add chicken back in and scatter in olives. Cover and simmer 15 to 20 minutes to cook chicken through, then uncover and reduce sauce 10 minutes more. Add parsley and serve.