French Fridays with Dorie: Chicken basquaise

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe (Chicken Basquaise, p 201) was a perfect dish to share with friends a couple of weekends ago when the weather started to turn autumnal.  A slow cooked dish it involves chicken cooked in piperade.  Piper-what???  Piperade is a traditional Basque dish – according to Dorie in the Washington Post, an “aromatic mixture of onions, peppers and dried Basque seasonings, good enough to eat on its own. It takes about an hour to prepare, and then can be paired with scrambled eggs for Sunday Supper and as a braising sauce for Chicken Basquaise.”  Those dried Basque seasonings? Dried Piment d’Espelette. And if you look carefully, the colours (green, red and white) are reminiscent of the Basque flag.

Dorie suggests removing the skins of the peppers to ensure a smooth, creamy texture for the piperade, though I admit to not taking the time to do this. I didn’t much notice it being a problem though I can certainly see if I had had the time been bothered it would make for a beautiful smooth texture to pair with the chicken.

In any case, this was a pretty and pretty tasty dish that was easy to prepare and was even better the next day. I’ll be making piperade again, for sure.

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35 thoughts on “French Fridays with Dorie: Chicken basquaise”

  1. Wonderful plate presentation Mardi! I didn´t even realized it said to peel the peppers… I should really start paying attention when I read. Have a great weekend!

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  2. Your dish looks gorgeous, so glad to hear I wasn’t the only one who didn’t see the need to remove the pepper skins. When I puree peppers I do, but for anything else, why bother.

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  3. I didn’t bother peeling peppers or tomatoes either, and I didn’t think it negatively impacted the outcome, either. For the minimal difference in the end product, it’s just not worth my time. I love how you plated this!

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  4. Now that you mention it I forgot that I didn’t remove the skins either but I never even noticed a problem with that. It was all I could do to muster the will to peel the tomatoes…but the peppers too? I love the photo staging in the pan! I’m going to steel..er…use that idea next time we do a similar dish.

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  5. I’ll be very interested to find out if any of us bothered to peel the peppers. I don’t deny that it is probably better, but I just can’t see ever being motivated enough to take that step. Maybe it’s a North American thing. In my experience the Europeans get a little crazy with the peeler around their fruits and veggies. My husband even peels his apples, which I just find bizarre.

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  6. I’ve learned something new today: piperade! Lovely! I can eat it on it’s own, yes. Sometimes a make fish with something similar, and I always make a double batch of piperade because it is just so delicious the next day! 🙂

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  7. When I saw the amount of peppers to be used I was certain I would not care for this, but it
    was delicious. I am anxious to try this with the eggs sometime, I’m sure it would make
    a lovely lite supper. Yours looks perfect.

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  8. It is indeed a pretty dish. I skipped the green peppers because I’m not keen on the yellowish colour they eventually take on after such long cooking time. Very autumnal like you said. Can’t wait to try the leftover to see if the flavour deepens overnight.

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  9. This was a fantastic dish, wasn’t it? I subbed more yellow, orange, and red peppers for the green – my tasters would have rebelled if I’d included green. I like your presentation – it looks so pretty in the bowl.

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