Catalan chicken

Pollo a la Catalana used to be a typical fall dish, just at the time when nuts were abundantly available. Nowadays, when we can find almost all kinds of food in supermarket cupboards, it is a common recipe at any time of the year.

It is a sweet and sour recipe thanks to the addition of pitted plums and raisins, making one bite savory and the next sweet, depending on what you bite into.

INGREDIENTS (4 people) :

• 1 whole chicken cut into 8 halves or 4 whole thighs or 8 legs, to taste.
• 2 large purple onions (purple or another sweet variety is best)
• 8 dried pitted plums
• 4 tablespoons raisins, corinthians or sultanas (pitted)
• 4 tablespoons raw pine nuts
• 1 cup of grated tomato
• 1 cup of dry sherry
• Salt
• Black pepper
• extra virgin olive oil

The day before, it is convenient to soak the plums and raisins in the dry sherry wine so that they rehydrate and take on the taste of the wine well. Do not put the container in the refrigerator. If you don't have dry Sherry, you can use another similar wine that you have, if possible a dry or semi-dry white (don't use sweet wine).

The day you are going to cook the chicken, wash it well and add salt and pepper. In a saucepan with a generous jet of olive oil, brown it until it turns coloured. You withdraw and reserve.

Then the grated onions are poured - eye, grated, not julienned or chopped - until transparent. At that moment we add the cup of grated tomato and let it cook until the sauce takes shape. At that time we add the wine and the plums and raisins it contains. We take the opportunity to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Let cook until half of the wine evaporates.

We reintroduce the chicken and cover with water flush. Let cook for half an hour or until very tender. Five minutes before the end we add the pine nuts, rectify salt and pepper, and ready to serve.

The part of chicken that corresponds to the diner is plated, a couple of prunes and covering all the sauce with the raisins and pine nuts.

It's really good and if you like sweet and sour, you'll love it.