New Year's Day - Garlic Chicken in Olive Oil

New Year's day. I got out of bed and jumped right in front of my laptop to check if there are any updates in my Facebook, when the tempting smell of garlic began to float into my room. Our neighbors apparently were cooking something olfactorily drool worthy.

Resolved not to let this garlic jealousy let me down (especially on New Year's day), I quickly Skype-d my boyfriend and asked if he knew the garlic chicken recipe his sister used when I hung out at his place a couple of months ago. He said his sister just made it from scratch and didn't follow any recipe. That was not enough to sway me from my garlicky desire.

I went to the kitchen and began to take out the garlic and chicken from the fridge. I absolutely had no idea what to do, I just wanted my garlic chicken.

Like I would always say though, I don't have a specific recipe and would just follow whatever hits me. I was inspired by two things, first by my boyfriend's sister's cooking and second was a dish I tried in Puerto Galera when my friends and I went there half a decade back. It was an Italian chicken dish swimming in olive oil with tomatoes, if I can recall correctly.

So below is the product of my garlic envy - which tasted pretty awesome, in my opinion. And I don't think my siblings can contest that since we pretty much wiped out the dish this lunch.

Garlic Chicken in Olive Oil

1. Marinate chicken strips with olive oil, chopped garlic, Italian seasoning, dried rosemary, salt and pepper.
2. In a deep pan, melt some butter (just enough to make sure the ingredients won't stick) then add some sliced onions. I used a head of onion, we only had the small red variety available at the moment. Cook until onions have softened, take out of the pan and set aside.
3. In the same pan, add olive oil. This time, be a little generous. Fry some more chopped garlic, then throw in the marinated chicken. Cook until chicken has turned white - no more pinkish color.
4. I added around a cup of warm water into the mixture, threw in three cloves of crushed garlic and then covered the pan. I think chicken stock would've been better, but since we didn't have any ready - warm water would just have to do. Leave for a few minutes, around 30, just for the liquid to reduce. I added the onions back in, midway.
5. In a frying pan, cook some bacon bits until crispy. Set aside. This is an optional bit, but I like the idea of throwing in a strong flavor to give the dish a little kick.
6. Once the chicken mixture has reduced considerably and you're left with more or less what you started with, you can now plate the garlic chicken. I added the olive oil sauce on the plate and topped the whole thing with the bacon bits. Some sliced olives would've been a nice addition too, but we didn't have any at the moment.

My uncle just thought I used a bit too much olive oil, but liked the way the dish tasted. YUM! :D He recommended that rather than making strips (which looked like chopped tuna or something), I should making it using breast fillets. He added that I should try grilling the chicken than just pan frying. I said I'll consider it - maybe in the future I would. I'm not really a big fan of grilling though.

As work would recommence Monday, I fear that the kitchen would once again, be a rather alien section of the house for me, in the upcoming months. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.