Pollo al Ajillo (Chicken & Garlic)

I have recently developed this love for Spanish food as well...the tapas dishes (appetizers) especially are a welcome change to the usual. There are Tapas only restaurants here in London and we used to frequent this one called La Tasca, till we kinda tried almost everything on their menu and now its boring. I am yet to try out some of the other tapas joints. My second blog entry was that of a tapas dish called Chorizo al Vino and a favourite of mine. The first time i discovered this ingredient called Chorizo was at La Tasca, and i had to try it out. Its such an easy thing to make, its difficult to screw up.

This dish, on the other hand, is a bit difficult..well difficult according to my standards. I don't know why, but i hate having to deep fry or even shallow fry anything. First of all i think I'm doing something wrong and the whole place is smeared in oil and what not. Second, I have always managed to burn my hand when I'm frying and three, the amount of oil that goes into the food and the rest of the oil that goes to waste..kinda puts me off the whole frying deal. So i try and bake whenever i have an option. But anyways, i managed to get through frying without the second part, but did the 1st and 3rd. But it was so worth all that trouble, the chicken and garlic combo was kick-ass.

Chicken- 1 kg, bone in pieces, no skin

Paprika- 3 tsp

Chilli pwd- 1/2 tsp (optional)

Pepper pwd- to taste

Salt- to taste

Garlic- 10 cloves

Sherry/ dry white wine- 150ml

Oil- to fry

Fresh parsley- to garnish

Clean the chicken pieces and marinate with paprika, chilli pwd, pepper pwd and salt.

Heat oil in a frying pan and add the pieces of chicken batch by batch along with two smashed garlic cloves. It brings out a nice flavour to the chicken, Now i covered the chicken and fried, for fear of oil splashing all over and burning my hands. In spite of doing all that, i still managed to mess it up and so you don't really have to do that. Shallow fry both sides till golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Either discard some of the oil or if there is very little left, add some more and throw in the rest of the garlic and continue frying. Add the chicken pieces and mix well.

Pour in the sherry and cook on low heat till the liquid is almost absorbed by the chicken...stirring in between and making sure it doesn't get stuck to the bottom. This might take some time..so patience is the answer.

Serve with some gravy over and garnish with parsley leaves and also raise a pitcher of Sangria to complement the meal.

Notes: Chicken wings can be used and i think boneless can do the trick as well.

I drained the chicken on paper towels due to fear of so much of oil intake..if you really don't freak out like me, then you can just add the garlic to the chicken pieces directly.

I used dry white wine instead of Sherry and the taste was very different. It was slightly sweet in spite of using dry wine. So use Sherry if possible.