Time, Energy, and Too Much Cheese: Chicken Smothered with Onions and Feta

Sometime a recipe is a perfect storm. This one certainly was, the confluence of my personal time vs. energy equation, a desire for comfort food, my interest in exploring some of my newer cookbooks more deeply, and the need to use up a random abundance of ingredients. My neighbor has been facilitating some food deliveries (lordy, that’s a long story) and we’ve ended up with an abundance – nay, a glut – of random food as she tries to get rid of the excess. Thirty pounds of bone-in chicken legs? Yep. Two huge pork butts? On it. Nine bags of onions? Sounds like soup to me. THIRTY GALLONS of milk? Well… okay. I guess it’s time to learn cheesemaking.

And that, folks, is what I’ve been spending my time and energy on. I started with yogurt (we don’t eat enough of it to justify the effort) and ricotta (downright magical). Then feta. Now I’m stretching mozzarella curds and posting pleas on Facebook for people to please for the love of god come get some cheese. This weekend my cheese press should show up, so I’m on to queso fresco and Havarti. The wine fridge has been repurposed as an aging cave for the upcoming Cotswald. Between the cheese and all our random canning/preserving/sausage making, my friend Jason and I figure we can manage an entirely home-grown cheese and charcuterie board by summer. (I am So. Excited. about this.)(I am a huge nerd.)

Since all my attention was on the pots of curds all over my kitchen, this low-maintenance dinner was just the ticket. I used up most of a bag of chicken on it, but it’s infinitely scalable and limited only by the size of your pan and the number of onions you’re willing to cut up. I opted to throw them in the food processor and suggest you do too. Finishing the dish used up half a pound of feta; if you’re interested in trying this, please swing by my house and I’ll set you up with some.

From The Glorious Foods of Greece: Traditional Recipes from the Islands, Cities, and Villages by Diane Kochilas.

 

Chicken Smothered with Onions and Feta

1 whole cut-up chicken, or any combination of bone-in chicken pieces, cut into serving pieces and excess fat removed
Salt
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 ½ cups olive oil
6 large red onions, finely chopped
½ lb feta cheese

 Put the chicken in a large bowl. Sprinkle with some salt and the vinegar, then ignore it while you chop the onions (see above re: food processor).

In a pan large enough to fit all the chicken, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Put the onions into the hot oil, turn the heat to low, and cover. Let the onions steam in the oil for about half an hour.

Scoop the onions out into a bowl using a slotted spoon, leaving as much oil as possible in the pot. Raise the heat, then brown the chicken pieces (in batches, if needed.) Return the onions and all the chicken pieces to the pot, making sure the onions cover the chicken as much as possible, then cover and cook on low for about an hour.

When the chicken is falling off the bone and your house smells amazing, stir in the feta cheese. It will melt and turn the oil/onion combo into a thick sauce. Remove the chicken to a platter; at this point, I pull off any skin remaining on the chicken. Skim any excess oil off the top of the sauce and pick out any large pieces of chicken skin that have fallen off, then serve the sauce on the side. We like this with roasted potatoes or a simple pilaf, anything that will justify smothering the plate with the extra sauce. No part of the end product tastes particularly onion-y, if that’s a concern; even my onion-hating son will eat this.