Correction + French Chicken in a Pot, Redux

Correction: An anonymous tip alerted me my description of 750 ML as organizing wine by adjective in an earlier post, Throwdown: Puck v. 750 ML, might be inaccurate. The comment correctly noted 750 ML's menu does not organize wines by adjective. It suggested I may have been thinking of the nearby Wine Styles, which does. I've never been to Wine Styles, however. I was actually referring to the introduction given on 750 ML's own web page. I assume it refers to an adjacent wine bar where wines are organized by adjective but I might be wrong. I emailed 750 ML to find out and when I hear from them I will post the answer here.

French Chicken in a Pot, Redux: I dug up an old recipe (culled from Cooks Illustrated, so you know it will be right on) for French Chicken in a Pot today. You may have missed it, as it is located here, at the bottom of the review of Mercer Kitchen's Winter 2008 Restaurant Menu, a post that greatly increased in popularity as Summer Restaurant Week approached. If you haven't already tried it for yourself, I highly recommend going back & picking it up for a cheap and easy summer supper.

I followed the recipe as posted and the result was an almost buttery, silky meat, utterly tender and juicy. It only takes about 10 minutes of actual work before the whole bird goes in the oven. Add a couple sides--perhaps a simple salad mix dressed with the jus of the chicken, a fresh loaf of bread, some grilled zucchini dredged in chunky salt and olive oil, pesto pasta--and the raw ingredients should cost only $10-15 for a meal than can feed 4-6 people.

I ate the chicken with a fun chardonnay from a winery that just moved into town. Milbrandt Vineyards gets its grapes from the Wahluke Slope, prime grape-growing land in Central Eastern Washington, but the tasting room is in my hometown, an upcoming hub of the Washington wine world. (My old neighbor is their winemaker!) I paid a visit the other day and the mistress of the tasting room, Rachel, did an excellent job talking me through their tangy chardonnays (think pineapple and banana), a surprisingly clean riesling, a springy chenin blanc, and luscious reds like merlot and syrah. The Traditions Chardonnay, the cheapest in the line and the complement to our chicken, was the unanimous favorite among the chardonnays.