Chicken Bibi (6/9/20-Story)

Tonight, I just made one dish: Chicken Provençal. So, I decided to tell a short story.

Over 2019–2020 New Years, my family, our friends and I took a cooking class in La Jolla, California. We picked a spot, Harvard Cookin’ Girl, and then decided to take a French cooking class, consisting of Tarte Tatin, a salad, and this Chicken Provençal over orzo.

We walked in, and we were greeted by the bubbly proprietor, Bibi. We then continued to make the amazingly simple Tarte Tatin by folding puff pastry over yum-yum-delish apples. She then proceeded to demonstrate how she makes her salad with champagne vinaigrette. She used this light dip technique to dress the salad, which I have not yet attempted to make at home yet, but has been on my mind for a few months now. After all of this came the now-legendary-to-my-family Chicken Provençal.

This dish starts with sweating shallots and adding turmeric, cumin and tomato paste. After that, you add chicken chunks, tomatoes, a lemon sliced in half (preferably preserved), some rosemary (I don’t do this), olives and brine. Then after 20 minutes (I only stir a couple times and keep the heat high to lightly char the bottom — my favorite) it’s done.

Once we had cooked the chicken, it was time to eat. It was really delicious! The salad was dressed perfectly and the chicken over orzo made a perfect stew. The Tarte Tatin was a great, sweet way to end the class. Bibi also made a video of the Chicken Provençal, so instead of giving exact measurements here, I’ll link off to the YouTube video. The only modification I made was that I added about a tablespoon more tomato paste vs. what’s recommended. I highly recommend her classes when in the San Diego area.

Harvard Cookin’ Girl

address: 7441 Girard Ave, La Jolla, CA 92037
website: https://harvardcookingirl.com
phone number: (858) 888–3509