Chicken Provencal

I am still deciding which book to choose for the next Cooking the Cookbooks. So for now I am zig-zaging among the few trusty companions lying on top of the cookbook piles.

This recipe came from The New Best Recipe which made me wonder why I didn't spot it earlier.

The recipe calls for 8 chicken thighs, but I really really don't like to eat thigh meat. Don't ask. Just don't like, okay? Leave it. Don't go there. So I picked up a whole chicken from my favourite supermarket and asked the nice lady behind the counter to hack it up for me.

Me: "Hi! Would you please cut the chicken up for me?"

Lady: "Sure, into how many pieces?"

Me: "Say 6 to 8 pieces would be great."

Lady: "For cooking curry?"

Me: "I need bigger pieces. 6 would be fine." Thinking of something to correspond to the 8 thighs.

Lady: "So for cooking curry?" Her eyes revealed confusion.

Me: "Erm, ... something like that." Thinking french curry.

I wondered if I should have checked the label on the chicken to see if it was stated "Chicken specially for curry". But if you are someone who knows how to hack a chicken, you would have spotted the fatal mistake I made and hence her confusion.

6 pieces??

2 wings + 2 thighs + 2 halves of the remaining body (????!!!) = 6 pieces.

Perfect.

Perfect idiot.

So how many pieces did I get in total? I reckon about 10, all of which were without a doubt ... curry size. Whatever that means.

I hate the browning part. It always require major cleaning up. Whenever I am browning something, I would vowed vehemently that my next kitchen must comes with an outdoor option. Splatter oil on the grass? Oops! Honey, I just cooked some critters as side dish. Cooking fumes billowing from my outdoor cooking operations? Sorry, just cooking, no need to call the fire brigade.

Anyway, that was the most tedious part of the job. Thereafter, it was just a matter of dumping all the other ingredients on the list in sequence.

The result? Tangy, flavourful, aromatic and satisfying dish to calm the brizarre mind.