Brooke's Spanish Class Assignment: Escabeche

Brooke and her friend Grace asked if they could come to my house so I could help them make a chicken dish as an assignment for their Spanish class - at first I was touched that they wanted to make it with me, then it occurred to me that I bet both sets of parents didn't want the mess at their house LOL!! But Aunt Jill is always down with a craft or cooking project - mess or not (wait, there's always a mess - what am I saying?!).

They totally made this on their own, I was just on stand-by for any questions they might have:

• how do you toast spices and what is a dry pan? (put the spices in a pan that doesn't have any oil or spray, stir spices for a minute or so until they get a little toasty and fragrant)
• do you eat the bay leaf? (no, remove and discard the bay leaf from the dish before serving)
• can we grow a bay leaf plant? (sure!)
• how small should we cut the carrots and onions? (uniform small dice)
• can we leave out the raisins because we don't like raisins? (no, if you are going for an "authentic" dish you should make it the way they say - maybe the raisins are an important flavor with the other ingredients)

All good questions! They were so cute, fun, and funny while making this - I loved watching them, and the mess from frying the chicken was totally worth it (actually they didn't even make much of a mess - ahhhhh the niece is growing up!) Hopefully they get a good grade for this - I didn't taste it but the house smelled so good while they were cooking it, I will definitely be making this myself one of these days.

Here is the recipe they found for "Chicken Escabeche"at bonappetit.com. Escabeche means the chicken is in an acidic sauce - in this case vinegar with spices and vegetables.

1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
6 garlic cloves, smashed
1 bay leaf
2/3 cup sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
4 chicken thighs, 4 chicken drumsticks
1 serrano chile, very thinly sliced
1/2 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup mint or cilantro leaves

Preheat oven to 400'. Toast cumin and coriander seeds in a dry medium saucepan over medium heat, tossing, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add 1/3 cup oil, followed by onion, carrot, and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent but hasn't taken on any color, about 5 minutes. Add bay leaf, vinegar, and 1/2 cup water, and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 1 minute.l Remove marinade from heat; season with salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season generously all over with salt and pepper. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium-high. Working in batches if needed, cook chicken, skin side down, in a single layer until skin is well browned and very crisp, 8-12 minutes. Turn pieces over and cook on the other side 1 minute (if cooking in batches, transfer pieces to a plate as they're done). Chicken will not yet be cooked through. Return chicken to pot, arranging skin side up, and nestling pieces side by side to form as even a layer as possible. Pour in marinade (meat should be mostly submerged, but you want the skin still exposed). Scatter chile and raisins over top.

note: one change to the recipe is they used boneless chicken
thighs figuring that'd be easier to serve the class

Transfer pot to oven and bake, uncovered, until chicken is cooked through, 10-15 minutes (or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into a thigh registers 165'). Let rest 10-15 minutes, then top with mint or cilantro.

What's better than a cooking project followed by a craft? They spent almost as much time making a creative sign to be displayed with the Escabeche at class the next morning. They sandwiched 2 pieces of decorative papers with the recipe on the front, their personal story on the back, and in the pocket between the 2 papers they put photos attached to a pull tab that stuck up at the top with the directions to "pull tab to see the photos" - pretty clever!