Chicken and Red Peppers

Penelope came through for me again with this delicious chicken dish that we made for some friends the other day. This one’s going into the regular rotation, although I will check my other Spanish cookbooks for other variations. Apparently this also works quite well with lamb and other meats. Adapted from ¡Delicioso!, by Penelope Casas, New York: Knopf, 1999.

Pollo al chilindrón
(Chicken Braised with Red Peppers)

A 3-3½ pound chicken (cut up into pieces, each breast chopped in half)
Salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp coarsely chopped jamón serrano (or prosciutto)
½ tsp paprika
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes, unsalted
2 large roasted red bell peppers, cut in strips
¼ tsp chile pepper flakes
Freshly ground pepper

Sprinkle the chicken pieces with salt.

Heat the oil in a shallow casserole and brown the chicken on all sides. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion has wilted. Add the ham, cook a minute, then stir in the paprika. Add the tomatoes, cook a minute, then mix in the roasted pepper strips, the chile flakes, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer 45 minutes. Serves 4.

Notes: I'm a little less insistant than the recipe when it comes to specific ingredients. The recipe calls for fresh tomatoes; since I didn't have time to scald and skin fresh tomatoes I used canned. It worked out well. The recipe also calls for imported or homemade pimientos; I bought a jar of roasted red bell peppers that worked just fine.