THE BEST CHICKEN EVER

Last night was delicious enchilada night. I tried a new recipe from Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen and it worked a charm. Enchiladas with leftover carnitas, rice with onions, garlic and cilantro and all topped off with tomatillo salsa. (No, we didn't cheat - at least not on the tomatillos. They're grown on the Isle of Wight). Tonight featured the most basic (and potentially most bland) ingredient: chicken. Specifically, a massive monster of a chicken breast purchased from The Natural Kitchen in Marylebone. (Skin on, bone in - thanks, much. I'm not some sort of healthy eating masochist who removes all the good bits!)

I decided to use one of my fave recipes on the chicken, garnerd from Cooks Illustrated ages ago. As a quick sidenote, I love Cooks. They try EVERYTHING when developing a recipe and detail it so you don't fall into the same sandtraps. Fantastic food journalism and delicious recipes. Anywho, here's the basic idea:

• Brine chicken breasts for 1/2 hour in salted cold water (I accidentally left mine in for an hour - it was fine)
• Heat the oven to medium hot - can never recall precisely, but about 200c.(Nearly forgot the most important part - pour yourself a bigass glass of wine)
• Heat a tablespoon or two of canola oil in a heavy, oven proof pan until it's damned near smoking.
• Rinse chicken breasts and pat dry with paper towels.
• Place breasts (the chicken's - not yours) skin side down in the hot pan. Cook until the skin is brown and crispy, about 2-3 minutes (you will be burnt by popping oil at the point, it's best that you just take a swig of wine and accept it).
• Flip the breasts over and cook for another 2-3 minutes and then (here's the ingenious part) slide the pan into the hot oven.
• Chill for 18-20 minutes (or, if you're like me, madly rush to prep a cornucopia of sides)
• Take the chicken out of the oven. Do not touch the pan with bare hands. Seriously. Ouch. Remove the chicken to a plate and keep covered.
• Reduce the juices in the pan, sauté some onions and garlic in. Reduce some wine. Add some herbs (pronouced 'ERBS! ongoing battle with my Brit husband) and presto-chango, you have have a delicious sauce for chicken.
• Transfer the chicken back to the pan. Cover in the sauce. Serve proudly.

Now, tonight the chicken was accompanied by delicious local asparagus, fingerling potatoes with butter and parsely and with a first course of crabcakes. I know what you're thinking, crabcakes? Really?

Hey. I had some extra crabmeat to use up. What's a girl to do?