Subj : Lucho's Chicken
To   : All
From : Ben Collver
Date : Tue Oct 28 2025 07:26:52

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
 
      Title: Lucho's Chicken
 Categories: Chicken
      Yield: 8 Servings
 
      8    Chicken pieces
      3 sl Bacon; up to 4
      2 tb Peanut oil (optional)
      2 md Onions; chopped
      4 cl Garlic; minced
      1 c  Dry red wine
  1 1/4 c  Diced tomatoes (1 to 2 lb)
      1 ts Salt
    1/4 ts Pepper
     15 oz Can chickpeas
 
  Skin & bone chicken pieces if desired. Dry well. Cut bacon across
  into 1/2" pieces. Chop onions, dice tomatoes large, and mince garlic.
  Drain chickpeas and rinse well.
  
  Render bacon in a large pan; remove when crisp and reserve. Brown
  chicken in bacon fat, then remove and set aside, pour off all but
  about 2 tb of the fat... or discard it and replace it with 2 tb
  peanut oil. Saute onions in the fat or the oil until soft. Return
  chicken and bacon to the pot along with garlic, wine, tomatoes, salt,
  and pepper.
  
  Bring to a boil, and then simmer until chicken is done, about 1 hour.
  Add more wine as required to keep moist. If the sauce is too liquid,
  you can remove the chicken and cook down the sauce. The meat may
  optionally be stripped from the bones at this time and returned to
  the pot.
  
  Add chickpeas, stir well, and allow to heat through, about 5 minutes.
  
  Irving's comments:
  
  Some fat can be saved by stripping the skin off the chicken before
  cooking. You can also use boneless pieces but I like to leave it on
  the bones as I think it develops more flavor and it is easily
  stripped from the bones when done, if desired.
  
  Leftovers from the fridge are just "heat and eat." The dish also
  freezes well, and is OK to reheat in the microwave.
  
  This is a favorite from my early working days (1953?) from my good
  friend Lucho. Lucho did this dish proud. He used lots more bacon and
  didn't throw any of the fat away!; a whole chicken, cut up; used
  fresh tomatoes; and lots of wine. I gradually got away from that by
  using canned tomatoes, less bacon and drained off all the fat or no
  bacon at all; added more onions and less wine. Mine always seems to
  have too much liquid so I couldn't add extra wine to develop the
  flavor. It got so far removed from the original, it just wasn't very
  good. Part of my excess liquid was from using canned tomatoes, too
  many onions, and too deep a pan. I have used the boxed diced tomatoes
  packaged by Parmalat. They work well (not too much liquid) and they
  keep well in the refrigerator after opening. The version I've
  presented here is much closer to the original in taste without
  incorporating too much fat.
  
  Recipe by Irving Levine
 
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