Name: Sauté of Chicken with Peppers, Ham, and Tomatoes (Poulet à la Basquaise)
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: Salt and freshly ground pepper; 6 chicken legs (3 to 4 pounds), at room temperature; 2 tablespoons rendered duck fat or olive oil; Flour, for dusting; 4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced; 2 ounces jambon de Bayonne, prosciutto, or Serrano ham, diced or slivered; 2 ounces ventrèche or pancetta, diced; 1 cup coarsely chopped onion; 1 cup coarsely chopped red bell peppers; 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley; 1 teaspoon crème de piment d’Espelette or ½ teaspoon ground piment d’Espelette; Pinch of sugar; 2 pounds ripe tomatoes, halved, seeded, and grated, or 1½ cups homemade tomato sauce

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Cooking of South West France

By Paula Wolfert

Published 1987

About

There are a hundred interpretations of this classic dish; mine is easy to make and tastes especially good on account of the addition of Espelette pepper, now available dried and powdered or as a crème or puree (see Mail Order Sources). With Espelette pepper, you taste flavor, not just heat. If for some reason you can’t find Espelette, substitute a good spicy paprika or mildly hot New Mexican pepper around 4 on the Scoville scale. (Note that the Scoville number