Chicken Maquechoux

Picture
Ingredients
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 3-pound chicken fryer, cut into 8ths
Marquechoux
5 1/4 cups corn kernels, fresh, milk reserved
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup onion, 1/2 inch dice
1/2 cup green bell pepper, 1/2 inch dice
1/2 cup red bell pepper, 1/2 inch dice
1/2 cup celery, 1/2 inch dice
1 1/4 cups tomatoes, peeled, seeded, 1/2 inch dice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
2-3 tablespoons milk

Directions
  1. heat the oil over medium heat.
  2. Brown the chicken parts, turning frequently to brown evenly. Remove and drain fat from the pan.
  3. Shuck the corn and remove all of the corn silk.
  4. Hold each cob over a bowl and cut the kernels away in layers (don't cut whole kernels).
  5. Scrape the knife along the cob to get all of the "milk" out of it.
  6. Melt the butter over medium-high heat in the same pan used for the chicken.
  7. Add the onion, bell peppers, celery, and tomatoes and saute until the onion is transparent, about 10 minutes.
  8. Stir int he salt and peppers.
  9. Add the corn kernels and milk form the cobs, the sugar, and cream and stir well. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the corn is tender, 10-15 minutes more. Adjust seasonings.
  10. Drain excess oil form chicken and return to corn mixture.
  11. Reduce the heat to low. Cook until chicken is very tender, 30 minutes, stirring frquently. f mixture seems to be drying, add 2-3 tablespoons milk toward the end fof the cooking period. Serve hot in a bowl.
Critique
Chef: Nice presentation, beautiful corn-doneness, consistent knife cuts. Breasts good, legs underdone, soaked up a lot of moisture from the sauce.

Personal/Team: Very colorful and flavorful, chicken was browned nicely and that helped the flavor of the dish overall. In general, I think this dish would be better with just thigh or breast meat.

Lessons learned:  chicken legs are more challenging to cook because of their shape. Need to be careful to cook them longer than the breasts and thighs. The legs are dark meat, so cooking the longer is not going to lose moisture, they should keep moist even if cooked longer.