Spanish Chicken

I’ve tried and tried to recreate a less salty version of La Tasca’s Polla al Aijillo many times but this recipe is the closest that I have come. The original recipe was posted by canarygirl on Recipezaar but I have adapted it to my own tastes and to make it more like the La Tasca version so, credit for the basis of the recipe must go to whoever canarygirl is.

Ingredients

• 4 free range organic chicken breasts sliced about half a cm thick
• 4 cloves of garlic crushed
• teaspoon of fresh oregano (but dried will do if you can’t get fresh)
• teaspoon of fresh lemon thyme (ordinary thyme will do)
• sea salt flakes
• olive oil
• large glass of white wine
• 1 lemon

Directions

1. In a grinder or mortar and pestle grind together the garlic, the sea salt, and the herbs and the olive oil, leave for a few hours.
2. Heat a little more olive oil in a frying pan, fry the chicken pieces gently for about 8 mins, add the wine and cook down till the wine is reduced by half then add about half a pint of water and cook slowly till the water has also reduced by about half. You can always add more water and cook for longer to make the chicken super tender.
3. Squeeze the juice of the lemon over it just before serving TO TASTE!!!

Pinchos Morunos – Tapas

Ingredients

• 1 piece of pork tenderloin weighing about 400g
• 2 tbsp hot smoked paprika
• 1 and half tsp ground cumin
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp oregano
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Directions

1. Cut the tenderloin into small cubes and marinate in paprika, lemon juice, ground cumin, cayenne, and olive oil for at least 6 hours.
2. Preheat a baking tray in the oven to 180 deg C.
3. Spread the cubes on the tray evenly and cook for about 13 mins in the oven.

You can stick them on a skewer and grill or bbq these if you like but leaving them in marinade makes them lovely and tender whichever way you cook them.