Italian Infused Chicken Recipe

The other day we covered the Soffitto, also known as one of the Holy Trinities of Italian Cooking and to many it is the only Holy Trinity. In fact, I have learned since posting about it, that many have never heard it called Soffritto, but in their households growing up it was known as the "Holy Trinity" or just the "Trinity." Perhaps, this is a regional thing.

The purpose of my Soffritto in that post was to use as a base for some Italian Infused Chicken, which would become the base of several of my upcoming meals. Now there is not a hardcore recipe for Italian Infused Chicken, it is kind of your call as to how much chicken you want to cook up and which herbs. So feel free to play with it, alter it, and make it your own. Here was how I made my last batch. Recipes incorporating this chicken will soon follow.

Italian Infused Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

Directions:

Spray 13X9 pan with olive oil or coat it with butter. Heat oven to 300 degrees.
After preparing Soffritto in a skillet, dump it into the 13X9 and even it out on the bottom of the pan.
Add some more olive oil and butter to the skillet, enough to keep the chicken from sticking as you brown it in the pan. Place 3-4 chicken thighs into skillet and quickly brown on both sides and then place them on the bed of soffritto in the 13X9 pan (chicken will still be raw, we are only browning it for flavor).
After all chicken thighs are browned and added to the 13X9 pan, add more minced garlic to the skillet and saute for about 2 minutes just to make fragrant. Scoop onto chicken in 13X9 pan.
Pour 16 oz of chicken broth over chicken. Then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and whichever herb you prefer to flavor your chicken. I used thyme. Cover with foil.

Bake at 300 degrees for 2 hours or until chicken thighs internal temperature reaches a minimum of 165 degrees.

Serve Chicken Thighs with other sides or remove chicken meat from bones and save with the broth and soffritto left in the 13X9 pan for other meals during the week.

Soffritto - The start to most Italian or Tuscan cooking. Known as one of the "holy trinities" in Italian cuisine.

On Sundays, as many cooks do, I make up some sort of "base" for some of the meals in the upcoming week. Whether it is a big pan of sauce/marinara, a roast, or a lot of garlic chicken, it will surely be something to make dinner a little less work on the busy week days, but still put a delicious meal before us at the family table.

Last night my choice was Italian Infused Chicken (recipe to post this week). I have meals planned this week for it, which you will see in upcoming posts. Now I started my concoction late at night. Everybody was in bed. I knew this was a huge mistake as soon as I started the Soffritto. Let me explain why.

First, do you know what the Soffritto is? It is the base of aromatics used in most sauces, stews, soups, etc in Italian cuisine. In French cooking they call it Mirepoix and in Spanish cooking it is called Sofrito. Most countries have a combo they consider their "holy trinity" of aromatics that must be sauteed in olive oil and/or butter to flavor the rest of the meal. For Italy these three are onions, celery, and carrots finely diced with a mezzaluna or knife. Most Italian cooks I know throw in some minced garlic in the last couple of moments too...which I think then makes it an "off-the-hook quadripartite." I also salt and pepper my soffritto while sauteing.

Chef Benedetta Vitali explains, "Mastery of the soffritto is the key to an understanding of Tuscan cooking. It is the foundation on which many Tuscan sauces, and other dishes are built."

This is why there was trouble in my household. Everybody was in bed either trying to fall asleep or they were out like a light. Soon as I started sauteing, I knew Monday morning was going to be rough. Why? Because my family is beckoned by the smell of the Soffritto by itself, but once I add the garlic, 100% guarantee they will come. You know like Field of Dreams or Noah's Ark..."if you build it, they will come." Well in our house it is, "If you cook it, they will come." Sure enough, one by one like ravenous zombies, they came out of their rooms, "What are you cooking?" I explained it was a long way from being completed and it was for meals this week to return to bed, but none would go without walking up to the pan to deeply inhale the aroma, which puts the most "angelic smiles" on their faces. No wonder it is called the "holy trinity of Italian cooking."

Herbs are another story, but they can be added to your soffritto. It depends on their purpose. If you want them to flavor meat, then you add them at the end of your saute of your soffritto, but if you want them to flavor sauce in a way they are distinctly picked up in the mouth, then you would add them toward the end (and again all of this is dependent on if they are fresh or dried herbs). If you want them to blend and not be pronounced, then you would add them at the beginning of your sauce. It just depends on your goal.

If you find yourself feeling too rushed for time to chop up a soffritto just to "start" cooking, then you could chop up your three main ingredients and store them in individual cooking portions in your freezer. I would not add the garlic to this, as you never want to saute garlic for long or it can become bitter or burnt instead of delicious. Freshly mince your garlic when you are ready for it. Then it is simple to get moving any night of the week with a most scrumptious meal.