9/17 chicken and garlic

For someone who claims to dislike chicken, i do find myself with a whole chicken in my fridge rather frequently. Really when it comes down to it, i dislike chicken that others cook. By others, i mean most commercial establishments. It's always skinless, boneless and invariably tasteless, dry as chalk breast meat (yes this is a bad thing). anyway, tonight i had a whole chicken and instead of roasting it, which always leads to happiness, i opted to braise it. Now, not too long ago, my mom made a garlic chicken dish from a classic elizabeth david book, which was quite delicious (the meal, not the book). i didn't have the recipe on hand, so i just did my best to recreate it. Basically, after browning the chicken, which i'd cut up into the standard 8 pieces (breast, thing, leg & wing), i braised it with some white wine, onions, a lot of garlic and some carrots till everything was nice and tender. (unsurprisingly, i used bacon fat as the lubricant). i also cooked up some green beans as a side. Speaking of the green beans, after steaming them, i like to pan fry them in butter till they are basically burnt. I realize this is very french of me and some might even say this is slightly weird, but it tastes sooooooooo good. they're not actually burnt, its closer to lightly caramelized. the waxiness is nearly gone and any crispiness that they've lost while cooking has been replaced by buttery crispiness. basically, they've become an unhealthy reincarnation of their previous selves. simply delicious.