More Fancy Pants Chicken

Yup, Danyale and I made some more fancy pants chicken last night.

It was Julia Child's poulet au porto (chicken in port) which required roasting a chicken ahead of time. Which I totally missed that part so had to start that process. Then the chicken that was defrosted in the fridge was stinko. Bleech! Then the question was, 'are we making something or running to the store?' I voted for store, Danyale thought I was nutz to go to the grocery store on a Saturday afternoon. She ain't wrong in that thinking. 

Anyway, we had a plan. I drove. Gave her my cc. She went in to purchase a 3-4lb bird while I readied the car for a quick getaway. 🏎️ It totally worked and we were only delayed about 20 minutes. 

Anyway, after getting the 🐓 in the oven, we watched Jamie cook this dish. 

Then I wondered, what wine should we drink with this and the Google gave me nonsense so I sent a text to Claude for guidance (he was in Miami at the Formula 1 races with the younger son so not joining us on the poulet au porto adventure).

That is the kind of specific answer I needed that Google did NOT provide. Not that I really had any idea what a Sancerre red was but I had plenty of pinot noir and Zinfandel. We busted open the pinot. 

There were then mushrooms and shallots to prep along with letting the chicken rest from the oven. 

Don't crowd the mushrooms!

Did I mention that I bought the port on the way back from a memorial service of one of our band mates yesterday? Well, that happened and I've decided that I shouldn't be trusted in a good liquor store that has many types of port. Or at least, don't let me walk in that section. Very often. 

I say all that because I didn't end up with ONE port but three. Ok, 2 ports and one Maderia. I NEEDED the Maderia since I know that Julia Child will require it in something I'm going to make soon. Guaranteed. And I NEEDED two ports because, well, one is for cooking and one is for drinking. The cooking one was $25 (NOT rotgut stuff) and then I just COULD NOT resist the 20 year Tawny. It was calling my name. So was the 30 year tawny but the $120 price tag stopped me dead in my tracks. So the 20 it was at only $65. 

Now, back to the sauce. With the reasonably priced port. 

The sauce looked and smelled good and got truly interesting when the port went in. Hurray. 

Then it was time for the fire marshall. LOL. No truly, I got to set the deconstructed chicken on 🔥. And if JC could seen the way I took that chicken apart, I know she would have turned in her grave. Oh well, it tasted just fine in that condition.

Now, back to the fire. 

Dump on cognac and get a match! Stand back. Then shake the pan until the flames go out. I think I was a tad impatient for the flames to die down and tried to shut that 💩 down too early. It wasn't done burning! Did I mention that I set the oven mitt on fire? You can watch all the hilarity below or on TikTok. 

After extinguishing the flames without any further mishap, we took the sauteed red potatoes and chicken and enjoyed. And yes, it did go quite nicely with the pinto noir. 

And if you thought I had forgotten about the 20 year tawny, you don't know me very well. Danyale had to bug out after that so I opened the bottle and proceeded to sip away. To say it was heavenly is an understatement and, after tasting that, I WANT to buy the 30 year next time. Maybe if I'm feeling flush that day. 

I'm off to my first class at the meditation center around the corner. I've signed up for the next level of training and looking forward to learning more. I'll spill the tea later.  

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Postscript: I spoke with the bf last night and when he originally saw the text, he didn't REALLY think I would put port in the chicken. As if, 'Port in chicken? What was Julia thinking?' I said, yes I did and yes it was amazing. The plan now is to make Coq au Vin for him this weekend. 🤞