Pollo al Ajillo Andaluz

Pollo al ajillo Andaluz is chicken cooked directly in olive oil, plenty of garlic, bay and fino, the bone-dry wine of Jerez. There is no onion or tomato hiding underneath, and no flour thickening the pan. This is ajillo, a garlic-led method, and the Andalusian stamp comes from the local wine sharpening the rich chicken juices.

The garlic decides the dish. Cook the cloves slowly in the oil until they're pale honey-coloured, then lift them out before the heat goes up for the chicken. Leave them while the chicken browns and they'll turn dark and bitter, and bitter garlic cannot be repaired with more wine or wishful thinking. Return them only once the fino goes in, when liquid protects them and they soften into the sauce.

Fino or manzanilla gives the cleanest result. If neither reaches your shops, use a very dry white wine. The sauce will lose some of its saline, lightly nutty edge, but it will still be a proper garlic chicken if the oil is good and the garlic is treated gently. No hace falta haber pisado España, you don't need to have set foot in Spain.

Serve it straight from the pan with plain bread or fried potatoes, because leaving that garlic-scented oil behind would be foolish. The note in my Margin is short: brown the chicken without burning the garlic. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.