Foods cooked ‘in tecia’ are from the Veneto and the Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions of Italy.
A tecia is a saucepan in the Venetian dialect (teccia in Italian). It is wide and of medium height, usually called a casserole in English and it is perfect for cooking this dish. Pollastro or gallina is chicken in Italian.
The recipes for pollastro in teccia vary and my version also contains mushrooms and potatoes. It is a homely way to cook chicken in the north of Italy; notice the use of butter, sage or marjoram which are not common in the south of Italy. I grew up in Trieste and I am very familiar with this dish.
INGREDIENTS
1 whole chicken (mine was 1.8 kg and free range)
1 onion
2 stalks of celery
2 carrots
50 g butter
½ cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of dry white wine
400 g of ripe, chopped tomatoes (can use cannned)
2 sprigs of sage leaves or marjoram (I use fresh; these are removed after cooking)
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 cloves
potatoes ,1-2 per person depending on size and tastes
½ cup chicken broth or use a stock cube
PROCESSES
Cut the chicken into 8 pieces and wipe dry.
Roughly chop the onion, celery and carrots.
Place the butter and oil in the pan (which will hold all of the ingredients), add the vegetables and toss them around in the hot pan until well coated.
Add the chicken pieces and brown them.
Add wine, tomatoes, broth, cloves, herbs, salt and pepper, cover and cook all over low heat.
The chicken should take about about 60 minutes. Either cut or use the potatoes whole – you will need to estimate how long into the cooking time you need to add these. I added the potatoes about 30 minutes beforehand and the mushrooms 15 minutes before the chicken was cooked.
Remove the herbs and serve.
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