This wonderful classic Provençal-style chicken is the best you will eat with olives, tomatoes, and white or rosé wine. It is a delicious chicken recipe known in Provence as pommes d'amour, or love apples (tomatoes), as they used to believe that they had aphrodisiac powers. It is truly easy and quick to make up anytime you are in a hurry!
If you like the ingredients in this recipe, try Mediterranean Chicken With Olives Recipe or Chicken In White Wine for a similar but different take.
This delicious dish is found almost anywhere in Provence, but especially in the Vaucluse.
This is a pan-cooked chicken dish and almost certainly is a dish that originally would have been prepared outdoors over a wood-burning fire.
The better the quality of the chicken, the tastier the dish will be.
There are many wonderful poultry dishes to try here on Love French Food, take your pick, Delicious Poultry Recipes.
More Excellent Poultry Dishes
- Whole Roast Chicken with lemons.
- Exquisite Chicken And Grapes
- Roast Duck
- Roast Goose
- Roast Turkey
📖 Recipe
Prep Like a Pro
Before you start cooking, chop, measure, and prep every ingredient, and gather your tools.
This simple habit reduces stress, prevents overcooking, and instantly improves your meals. Mise en Place - "Everything in its place."
Chicken Provençal
Equipment
- heavy-bottomed pan
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg chicken thighs or drumsticks and wings
- 4 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large onion sliced
- 100 ml white or rosé wine or chicken stock instead of wine
- 1 fresh bouquet garni of oregano marjoram, bay leaf and basil.
- 350 gr of ripe tomatoes peeled and chopped
- 2 tablespoon tomato purée
- OR, substitute fresh tomatoes and tomato purée with, 2 cups of my French tomato mother sauce
- 12 de-stoned black olives lightly crushed
- 4 garlic cloves finely chopped
- handful of fresh parsley finely chopped, or a mix of fresh herbs
- salt and ground black pepper
Instructions
- Pat the chicken pieces dry and rub all over with salt and pepper.
- Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottom frying pan or a flameproof casserole.
- Fry the chicken over medium-high heat for 10 minutes, pressing the pieces down from time to time to maintain contact with the pan, and turning them often to brown.
- Transfer the chicken to a warm place, and set aside.
- Put the onion in the pan and fry for 1 minute, stirring constantly,
- Pour in the wine and add the bouquet garni, scraping up the sediment as the wine reduces to about half.
- Add the tomatoes, tomato purée or tomato sauce, and olives, and cook for 3-5 minutes on a high heat, stirring.
- Return the chicken to the pan, cover with a lid (or foil) and cook for 8-10 minutes, until tender.
- Mix the garlic and parsley together, scatter over the chicken, and serve hot.
- The garlic and parsley mix, in this simple form, is known as persillade. If it is introduced into the cooking at a late stage, as suggested here (step #9), the garlic is quite strong. This can be mellowed somewhat by combining this step with step #8.
Notes
- Substituting the tomato sauce for the fresh tomatoes and tomato puree will change the nutritional values.
- Drying the chicken pieces first before cooking will allow them to brown nicely.
Loved it, tweaked it, or not your "cup of tea"... I’d really love to hear how it went for you.