Chicken Catalan 7 pts+

Shhhhhh...  I'm going to tell you a secret... I think that my Italian grandmother, Josephine Catalano Cieri, may have been part Spanish.  I mean, her family name, Catalano, literally means "from Catalan" which would make at least one of her forebears Spanish.  Some of Grammie's best dishes weren't like what the other Italian grandmothers I grew up with cooked, either.  For example, she put raisins in her meatballs and chicken braised in wine.  She put allspice and cinnamon in her ragu, too.  This marriage of sweet and savory is one of the hallmarks of Catalan cuisine.

Tonight I decided to cook some chicken breasts Catalan-style!

Chicken Catalan

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chick breasts, cut into ten chunks
1 med onion, chopped (about 1 Cup)
1 - 2 large garlic cloves, smashed and minced
1 Tbs olive oil
1 15 oz can of fire roasted tomatoes in juice
1/2 C full bodied red wine
1 tsp chicken bouillion granules
2 tsp smoked sweet paprika
1 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 good pinches crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 Tbs raisins (optional)
1 Tbs minced almonds (optional)

In a 4 qt pan, saute the onions and garlic in the oil until translucent.  Add in the bouillion granules, paprika, thyme, black and red pepper and raisins and saute for a minute or two.  Splash in the wine and saute until the alcohol has burned off, about two minutes.  Add in the tomatoes and stir well to combine.  Nestle the raw chicken chunks into the tomato sauce, cover and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes until chicken is cooked and flavors have melded.  Garnish with almonds.

after about 7 or 8 minutes, I layered 1 lb of frozen broccoli florets on top of the chicken and sauce, put the cover back on, and finished simmering the chicken.  The frozen broccoli cooled the sauce, so the total simmering time for the chicken was about 15 minutes.  To serve, I fished out the chicken chunks and plated them,  then mixed the broccoli into the sauce to serve, garnishing everything with the almonds.

This makes a lot of sauce, so you will want to have a vegetable, like broccoli, a grain, like rice, or simply some noodles or crusty bread, to sop all that deliciousness up.

5 servings; 7 WW points+ with broccoli; 5 WW points+ without the raisins and almonds