CHICKEN WITH TAMARIND, APRICOTS AND CHIPOTLE SAUCE

By chuck

Mex chicken w/ Mid-East influences

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken cut into pieces, plus two more pieces of your choice, with skin and bones
• 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt, or more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground, or to taste
• 1/2 cup safflower or corn oil
• 4 cups water
• 1/2 pound, about 3/4 cup, dried apricots, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons apricot preserves
• 3/4 cup tamarind concentrate, can be store bought or homemade (recipe follows) or substitute with 2 tbsp tamarind paste mixed with 1 tbsp sugar and 3/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons chipotles in adobo sauce, or more to taste, add chiles if you please

Preparation

Step 1

Thoroughly rinse chicken pieces with cold water and pat dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

In a deep extended skillet, heat oil over medium heat until it is hot but not smoking. Add chicken pieces in one layer, bring heat to medium-low, and slowly brown the chicken pieces for one hour. Turn them over every once in a while, so they will brown evenly on all sides.

Pour water over the chicken, raise the heat to medium-high, and bring it to a simmer. Incorporate the apricots, apricot preserve, tamarind concentrate, chipotle sauce and salt and stir, and keep it at a medium simmer for 35 to 40 minutes more. You may need to bring down the heat to medium.

The sauce should have thickened considerably as to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Taste for salt and heat and add more salt or chipotle sauce to you liking.