moist red baked chicken alla nora

There is no single chicken alla nora. She uses no recipes, measures no ingredients, and likes to try different spice mixes. bob liked this one and asked her to at least list what went into the mix with a vague indication of the amounts that only had suggestive value. And then soon after attempted a recreation. Kind of like all the cold fusion people who went into action after the first big announcement. Except for the measure of success. The resulting chicken, while not exactly the same, was still good, and that's all that counts in the kitchen. Cold fusion, on the other hand, well, the cake did not rise in anybody else's kitchen so to speak.

ingredients

meat

2 lb skinless chicken (about 3 unsplit chicken breasts)

dry stuff

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 t allspice

1/2 t cumin

1 cinnamon stick

1/4 t oregano

1/4 t thyme

1/8 t cardamom

2 cloves

1 bay leaf

1/8 t cayenne red pepper

wet stuff

1 T sweet red pepper paste

1 T tomato paste

3 T olive oil

1/4 c lemon juice (from 1 or 2 lemons)

1 t vinegar

6 cloves garlic, pressed

oven prep

1/2 c water

instructions

1. Clean the chicken. Remember that some unacceptably large fraction of US mass market chickens come home with salmonella contamination.
2. Mix the dry stuff in a large bowl and then add in the wet stuff and mix together well.
3. Slime the chicken around in this marinade (use your hands), cover with plastic wrap, and marinate in the fridge for a few hours.
4. Put the chicken in a baking dish and add the water, then cover tightly with aluminum foil.
5. Bake in a 350º preheated oven for 1 hour.

notes

1. Nora used hot red pepper paste, which we like most other Americans did not have, so we substituted the sweet red pepper paste plus cayenne red pepper powder.
2. This was so tender and moist, it just fell apart with the fork. Yum!