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Chicken in Tomato Sauce (Kota Kokkinisti)

Such a flavorful topping to pasta, rice, mashed or fried potatoes, or use it as a filling in tamales or any other type of meat pita pockets!
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Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 whole chicken ~3-4 lbs
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1/2 cup butter or olive oil
  • 1/2 cup red wine can substitute water or broth, if you prefer
  • 1 pound ripe tomatoes grated, or 1 tablespoons tomato paste (see Note)
  • 1 cinnamon stick about 2-3 inch piece
  • 2 whole cloves
  • 1 cup water

Method
 

  1. Wash and clean your chicken, make sure you have pulled any left over filaments (feather strands), and pat dry.
  2. Sprinkle salt and pepper all over the chicken.
  3. Heat butter (or oil) in pot big enough to hold chicken, add chicken and brown on all sides.
  4. Once browned, add wine and bring to a boil for a few seconds.
  5. Add grated tomatoes or the tomato paste, cinnamon stick, and cloves.
  6. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer on low heat for about 2 hours, or more if the chicken is bigger. Check the chicken every half hour or so and see if it needs more liquid. If so, add another cup of water each time you check and think it needs some. There should be some red sauce left at the end to serve with the chicken.
  7. Portion chicken into pieces or shred it up (removing the bones), and put it into the sauce in pan and serve over your favorite starch.

Notes

You can blanch and remove the skin of the fresh tomatoes before grating or you can just grate them raw. If you grate them raw the skin tends to stay behind so when you have grated the flesh just pitch the skin. If you are using tomato paste then dissolve it in the cup of water before putting it into the pot.