Pollo a la Sidra Asturiano

Pollo a la sidra is Asturian: browned chicken braised with sidra natural, the region's dry, still cider, until onion and tart apple collapse into a sharp, glossy sauce. This belongs to Asturias's orchard country. What makes it different from a chicken braised in wine elsewhere is the cider's clean acidity and faint farmhouse edge. Sweet bottled cider gives you sticky chicken, which is another thing entirely.

The part I watch is the reduction. Brown the chicken properly, cook the onion low until dark gold, then boil the cider uncovered until its harsh edge softens and its volume falls by a third. Once the chicken is tender, lift it out and reduce the sauce again. That second reduction concentrates the apple while rounding its bite, so the sauce clings rather than running across the plate. Rush it and you have cider-flavored broth.

If Asturian sidra natural isn't sold where you are, use the driest unsweetened hard cider you can find. A dry sparkling cider will do if you open it and let it settle first; the sauce may taste a little fruitier and less earthy, but it will still be sound. Don't use apple juice. No hace falta haber pisado España, you don't need to have set foot in Spain. In the Margin beside this recipe I wrote one line: reduce again after the chicken comes out. Follow that, and it turns out.