15 January 2015
Welcome friends. Happy New Year to all. I took advantage of my time off to create a new winter image. It took some time to plan, set up, and photograph, but it turned out very nice. I'm extremely happy with the progress I have made creating images for this site over the past year.
I wanted to start the year with a nourishing recipe. When I make this dish, the scent of anise gently perfumes my kitchen. I can't remember where the idea for this recipe came from, but it gives me a little extra boost to endure the snow and cold of winter.
Over the holidays I visited my family. I didn't really have time to clean my place up before I left. When I got home, I had some major cleaning to do. So I dug out this recipe and got it started. As the dish cooked, I cleaned. I don't really enjoy cleaning, so having this dish as a reward helped to motivate me.
I remove the skin from the chicken breasts but keep the meat on the bones. The breast meat seems to get stringy if you chop it into pieces and then cook it, in my opinion. The chicken gets very tender when it is cooked this way. I also like the vegetables chopped large for this dish.
In the winter, I often add edamame to soups and salads. I like it in this dish for the color and flavor. If you can't find edamame, you might substitute peas or lima beans.
Star Anise Chicken
40 min. prep time | 2½ hr roast time
Ingredients
serves 6
- 6 chicken breasts, skin removed
- 1 cup frozen, shelled, edamame
- 1 Tbl olive oil
- 1 Tbl butter
- 2 shallots, diced
- 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 1 fennel bulb, chopped
- 1 russet potato, peeled and chopped
- 3 yellow squash, chopped
- 1 eggplant, chopped
- 1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 3 cups water
- 1 or 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 3 or 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1 star anise
Directions
preheat the oven to 400° F.
place the chicken breasts on a baking sheet, bone side down, and roast them for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325° F, but leave the chicken breasts in the oven while the temperature adjusts.
place the edamame in a small bowl. Cover the beans with cold water and set aside.
heat the butter and oil in a medium sized sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter stops bubbling, add the shallots, carrots, and fennel. Sauté for about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally.
place the chicken broth and water in a large roaster or dutch oven. Add the shallots, carrots, and fennel. Chop the remaining vegetables and add them to the pan. Add the cannellini beans. Drain the edamame and add them to the pan. Add the salt, pepper, and star anise, and stir to combine all the ingredients.
tie the rosemary and thyme together using kitchen twine, and add them to the pan.
remove the chicken breasts from the oven. Using tongs, arrange the chicken breasts in the pan with the bone side facing up. Gently push them down into the liquid so that they are covered with liquid as the soup cooks.
cover the pan and place it in the middle of the oven. Bake for 1 hour. Uncover the soup and gently stir it. Return the uncovered soup to the oven and continue to cook for 1½ hours. Gently stir the soup every half hour. Remove the tied herbs before serving.