After playing around with the aforementioned chicken recipe from our friend Joel, we came up with this version. We’ve called it “Orient Express Chicken” as a nod to its exotic ingredients from Europe and the Levant. Try it, play with it, and report back – there’s lots of room for additional interpretation.

• 1 whole chicken, quartered
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon butter
• ¼ cup smoked Spanish paprika
• ¼ cup ground Aleppo peppers
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black Malabar peppercorns
• 1 cup roasted red peppers, chopped
• 1 cup black nicoise / kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
• ¼ white wine
• ¼ chicken stock
• Chopped Italian parsley

Rub chicken with half of the olive oil, season with ground pepper and coat with a mixture of the paprika and ground Aleppo peppers. Melt the butter and add the remaining olive oil, then sauté the chicken skin side down for 10 minutes. Turn and sauté another 5 minutes.

Toss in olives and the roasted red peppers and any remaining paprika/pepper mix. Deglaze the pan with the wine, then  add the chicken stock. Finish cooking the chicken in a 375° oven for 20-30 minutes or until chicken is done. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Garnish with the chopped parsley and serve with saffron rice on the side to mop up any extra sauce.

Yields 4 servings

It’s hard to do new variation on chicken, but at a dinner the other night my good friend Joel served a roast chicken coated in smoked Spanish paprika and ground Aleppo peppers from Turkey, surrounded by roasted red peppers and kalamata olives.  The flavor was incredible – and the deep red color was quite the show stopped for a self-proclaimed casual dinner.  I immediately started thinking of how to adapt into a more formalized recipe, since he is one of those cooks that swears he never follows a recipe.  Some of us need more formalized guidance.  I’ll experiment and  “play with it” (as Chef Adrien at Project Open Hand always says) then serve to the Spicey Spouse and post the results.