Sweet and Sour Chicken Drumsticks
Some women are wooed with flowers. Others with chocolate. My husband wooed me with chicken. Yep. I’m that type of girl. A chicken dish won me over. He invited me to his studio apartment for a homemade dinner. I found the fact that he had cut up chicken and green peppers unbelievably sexy.
When I walked up the steps of the brownstone into his tiny apartment with distressed exposed brick walls, the chicken stew smelled incredible. We ate it on floor, leaning on a faux marble formica coffee table clearly inherited from his parents when they remodeled the 70s out of their home. We shared the same green plastic bowl, feeding each other the sweet and tangy chicken. It was unquestionably the most romantic meal I’d ever had.
Six months later, I moved into that tiny apartment. Didn’t I mention that I’m that kind of girl? On special occasions, I made the chicken dish myself, but once I got the recipe, the romance vanished. Other than the chicken, all the ingredients were highly processed, dehydrated onion soup processed, and the recipe simply consisted of dumping it all together and letting it cook for an hour. I still made it, but I didn’t love it in the same way, and complained that it left a chemical taste in my mouth. After a few years, I banished the recipe in favor of Beef Bourguignon Stew, and also got rid of the faux marble coffee table and stuffed hammerhead shark.
Last weekend, looking for a quick and easy dish to whip up for some visiting relatives, Steve suggested that we make the Druckman chicken. Too tired to look for another idea, I agreed, on one condition: I would remake the dish to not be so processed. We didn’t eat the dish on the floor, but it tasted just as sweet and delicious as it had 13 years ago. The sweet and sour chicken stew that brought us together is now back in our repertoire, and here to stay.
Sweet and Sour Chicken Drumsticks
Ingredients
- 1 Chicken, Cut into Pieces (or purchase 2 packages of cut up chicken parts, with skin and bones)
- 3/4 cups of white wine
- 2 vidalia onions, finely diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 4 carrots, peeled and finely diced
- 2 green peppers, seeded and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 16-oz bottle of Wish-Bone Russian Dressing (have to leave a little processed goodness!)
- 1 large jar (18 oz) of apricot jam
- 1 teaspoon of ancho chili powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a large ovenproof casserole or Dutch Oven, heat the olive oil. Place as much of the chicken in the pan as you can to cover the bottom, brown the chicken on both sides, about 4 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken, and brown the remaining chicken pieces.
- Dice the onion and garlic, and ancho chili powder and saute in the chicken juices until translucent and soft.
- Pour the white wine in the pot. With a wooden spoon, get all the yummy caramelized bits of chicken and onion off the bottom of the pan. Bring the wine to a boil and reduce by half, about 3 minutes.
- Add the carrots and green pepper and saute for a minute.
- Add the chicken back in the pot, pour the Russian Dressing and apricot jam on top. Stir well.
- Put the top on the pot and place in the oven for an hour.
- You can serve the dish immediately, or reheated with some rice or couscous.
- This would also be a great candidate for your slow cooker.