Attention lovers of garlic and olives

Last week at Publix I tossed a whole chicken in my grocery cart because it was on sale, but had no real plans for what I would do with it. Then, a few days later I watched an episode of America's Test Kitchen in which viewers were basically lambasted for roasting anything but free-range and/or kosher birds, because apparently the general supermarket variety will inevitably turn out dry and tasteless. I've had plenty of dry and poorly roasted chickens, and I'm not sure if that has more to do with the quality of the bird or the skill of whomever is roasting it, but I wasn't about to take my chances.

So, I immediately ran to the fridge to check my bird because I could have sworn the packaging had some "free-range-type" claims on it ... and I was wrong. There was nothing free or kosher about my bird, and after Christopher Kimball's tirade, there was no chance I was throwing my de-feathered friend in the oven.

I turned, then, to my copy of How to Cook Everything and found a recipe for Chicken and Garlic Stew that looked promising, mainly because it required very few ingredients and had one of my favorite foods (not chicken) in the recipe title.

It turned out to be FABULOUS. It was even worth the disgusting endeavor of cutting the raw chicken into parts before poaching. The chicken was so moist and absorbed all the flavors of garlic, parsley and cinnamon and the garlic cloves softened in form and flavor, easily eaten on their own or smeared on a piece of crusty bread.

Then, last night we had Smitten Kitchen's version of pasta puttanesca, bursting with all the splendid saltiness of olives, anchovies and capers. Even better, you wilt arugula into the sauce at the very end, adding just a little bit of pepperiness (is that a word?) to counter all the salty ingredients. YUM.

Sadly I did not photograph either dish, and I don't like blogging without photos, so I suppose a photograph of our happy eater will have to suffice.