Up next in 10
Homemade Portuguese Grandma's Chicken (Frango da Avo) - Simply Jocelyn
510 views
May 8, 2025
The dish that Jocelyn loves so much that she had it as the main dish at her wedding. Frango da Avo is a dish Jocelyn learned about while living in Portugal. It is a super simple recipe and will fill up your family. There is also a bonus on how to cook Portuguese style french fries to go along with Grandma's chicken. #chicken #simpledinner #cookathome Follow Jocelyn on Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/jocelynwoltersworld Follow Simply Jocelyn on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Simply-Jocelyn-A-Globally-Inspired-Life-100312851709273/ Grab Some of Jocelyn's Favorite Kitchen Gear Ninja Blender/Food Processor - https://amzn.to/30F4vXZ Calphalon Tri-Ply Stainless Steel Cookware - https://amzn.to/30sZ91O GreenPan Lima Ceramic Non-Stick Griddle - https://amzn.to/2BNCa77 PriorityChef Mortar and Pestle - https://amzn.to/3ff4rCd Silicone Stretch Lids for Keeping Things Fresh - https://amzn.to/2UvX6pL Le Creuset Stoneware Butter Crock - https://amzn.to/2UwIxSV
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hey, I'm Jocelyn and today we're going to make a Portuguese dish called frango do avô
0:05
Frango do avô translates to grandma's chicken and for every grandma out there, there's a different recipe
0:12
but this is the one that I learned in Portugal and I really love it
0:16
It's super simple, it's really rich and it's great to feed a crowd and it's not terribly expensive
0:21
So we'll just get going. These are all the ingredients that you need for the entire thing
0:26
is dry onion soup mix, boneless, skinless chicken, and you can do breasts or you can do thighs
0:33
whatever's cheapest, whatever's just available, that's what you need. And then heavy cream. Yes
0:40
this is a fattening dish, but you're eating chicken, right? So there's not much fat there
0:45
right? So we're evening it out, maybe, maybe not. Anyway, so we'll just get, I'm going to get
0:51
started. I'm going to go rinse my chicken and kind of pat it dry and then I'll stick it in this bowl
0:55
and we'll get started. Okay, so I've got my chicken. It's been rinsed where I could grasp
1:01
the extra fat. I did pull it off. That's not terribly necessary, but, you know, if you want to
1:09
So what I'm going to do with these, these are like massive chickens. I don't know, I don't know
1:14
what kind of chicken makes that kind of chicken breast, but that thing is, that's like Dolly
1:19
part of chicken breasts. Um, so we're just going to cut these into what I think are more manageable
1:25
pieces. Um, I don't know. I'm thinking about the people that are eating this and like what a serving
1:32
looks like. So we're just, you know, maybe thirds. I think that looks pretty good. Um, and I'm actually
1:38
going to throw this back in this bowl because I am going to dress the chicken in that. This
1:44
This is a little more manageable size. It's not quite Dolly Parton
1:50
I'm just going to set that in there. By the way, I think she's kind of the most fabulous person
1:54
She's such a good human being. She does good work for all sorts of people. All right, so we've got our chicken
2:01
I'm going to throw that in there. I'm going to go wash the chicken guts. Okay, chicken guts are gone
2:07
So I've got my chicken here, and all we're going to do is really easy dress it with this
2:13
This is just dry onion soup mix. You're going to take a packet, maybe two, depending on how much flavor you want
2:21
I'm going to do about a packet and a half just for the amount of chicken that I have here
2:26
The thing is, this stuff is like loaded with sodium. So I kind of run it through a sieve, or a sieve, depending on where you're from
2:35
And I just sort of shake out some, not all, but some of this brown stuff because that's
2:42
where all the salt is, which is why I'm going to use, you know what, I'm going to use two packets
2:48
Get rid of a little of that extra stuff in there, trying to make this a little bit more healthy
2:54
I'm not always very good at that though. All right, so we're going to dump that in there
3:00
and you know what, I love to use my hands and get really messy and dirty, so I will just
3:07
rub this chicken make sure it's well coated and if it's not coated enough I'll add some more
3:14
but this looks like it's yeah this is pretty much perfect so once you get this nicely coated just set it in your pan I typically use um a glass pan
3:27
but I met my mother-in-law's by the way this is a great thing to make when you're in someone
3:32
else's kitchen because it's easy. So I don't know. I often find myself at my mom's or my mother-in-law's
3:39
or one of my sisters or at friends' houses and we're all cooking together. This is one of those
3:44
nice easy recipes that you can do with just about anyone. So thank you Portugal for giving me this
3:52
recipe. Here we go. Also thank you for giving me my son. Our youngest was born when we were living
4:00
in Lisbon, so this is like a special meal to him. So we'll just put those pieces in there
4:08
and I'll get these little extra bits and throw them on top
4:15
That's good. All right so I told you this was going to be a really flavorful but easy dish and it is Next step is your last step Well not really Last step is putting it in the oven right So I just going to pour heavy cream in and about half a quart maybe a little bit more
4:35
is about appropriate. I sort of pour it in so I'm not rinsing all the stuff off. But what happens is
4:43
all this stuff is going to cook down. It's going to make the most wonderful sort of gravy, saucy
4:48
stuff. And you're going to serve this over rice with a side of fries because in Portugal
4:58
if you go to Portugal for a week, most, let's say you have 10 dinners
5:06
eight will have a side of fries and a side of rice. Sometimes two sides of fries. It's just
5:11
the way they do it. Actually, I really kind of love it. Good homemade fries, which I am going
5:17
to show you how to make in just a bit. So that's it. I don't have to cover it completely. You can
5:23
kind of see that, I mean, it's definitely up about halfway on the chicken, but it doesn't have to
5:29
cover it. You know what? I've only got a dibby dab in here. I'm just going to go ahead and
5:32
pour that in. So that's it. Now we're going to throw it in the oven until the chicken reads 165
5:41
with a thermometer. You know, when you take temperatures, put it in the middle of the middle
5:46
and you know don't let it touch the edges or anything like that get that center reed on it
5:52
once that's 165 it's all ready there we go okay so I've peeled my potatoes I've cut them down into relatively uh french fry it's size and I put
6:06
them in the oven just to sort of start that cooking process and I'm going to ask my mother-in-law
6:10
Kathy to come and help me with the fryer okay so this is Kathy my love my mother-in-law say hello
6:16
Okay, we're kind of wearing matching shirts. I know. That was not intentional
6:21
We do things like that on occasion. So she's got this little cool electric skillet
6:26
I know, you call it a skillet. I think of it as a fryer because you always make your wonderful fried chicken in it
6:31
So in my mind, it's somehow a fryer. But we've got it on
6:35
We'll work that way. We're plugging it in, and we're just going to put the oil in
6:40
Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Here, you want to put that. to go along with our gigantic bag of rice that Mark bought
6:48
He bought us a really tiny bottle of vegetable oil. So we're going to hope that this is enough
6:55
Sure, it'll be fine. Yeah, it'll be good. We might have to cook in batches, but we'll be okay
7:00
That's good. That's good. This is a really good thing to cook in a silk shirt, isn't it
7:06
I'm so smart. Not probably not with silk. I mean. And ice cream would work well
7:15
So when I worked in restaurants, I learned several wonderful tricks in the kitchen
7:21
And one of them was that if you get a grease spot, immediately put flour on it
7:28
Because the flour will soak up the grease. And it kind of helps later when you have to go back and take a stain out
7:37
So flour is always kind of out at my house or easy to grab
7:41
because it's also really good if you burn yourself. You can stick your hand in that really quickly, and it takes the heat out
7:47
Of course, you still need to use cool water and things like that, but stick your hand in a..
7:52
I actually have a jar called hand flour, and that's where I shove my hand when I burn it
7:58
Because it happens. No matter how good you are, it happens. Mark and the boys and I are here visiting Grandma and Grandpa
8:05
but so is our dog. So if we splash, Brigadier will come and clean it up for us
8:11
That's great. Okay, so we've got our first batch of fries done and, well, semi-done, and we've got our second batch in
8:20
And, you know, we talk a lot about, like, cuts being proper and things like that
8:26
Part of that, too, to make things cook well, like when I'm frying these French fries, because they're not in a fry, Daddy
8:33
If you frying in this kind of electric skillet or just a regular skillet on the stovetop keeping them all sort of going the same direction helps them to cook more evenly just like good cuts cook more evenly It the same thing Just save yourself a little bit of time so when you put them in they all in the same pattern It kind of makes it a little bit easier on you later
8:59
So while these are cooking, I'm going to pull out my chicken so you can see where it's at. It's about halfway done is my guess right now
9:06
Alrighty, there's my chicken. It's looking really pretty, but it's not ready and I can tell that because it's really runny
9:16
So we're just going to let it cook. And I'm cooking this uncovered the whole time
9:21
And I think, if you don't mind my stealing these, I'm going to turn these puppies over
9:30
Just get that yummy saucy stuff all over the whole thing. Also, it will add a little more flavor to the cream that's surrounding them
9:42
They were so beautiful. They were. And you know what, if you care about that, go ahead and leave them up that way
9:52
I don't care about that. For me, it's all about the flavor. Sauce. Right
9:57
I love that sauce. I can bathe in that sauce. Careful. I won't bathe in the sauce, though
10:03
I promise. Alright, so I'm going to throw these in for about another 10, 12 minutes
10:09
The chicken's probably getting pretty close to done. I'm going to just, yeah, it's a little underdone yet, but we will see how it goes
10:19
Yeah, we'll just throw it in for a little bit longer and get that sauce cooking down
10:24
So we have been cooking these for what feels like an hour, but our chicken's getting pretty
10:30
close to done, and these are getting nice and beautiful and golden. I don't know if you can see these beautiful nuggets
10:37
There went one back into the fryer. Okay, so I'm going to check my chicken
10:41
it should be pretty close to done. I grabbed a meat thermometer and I'm just going to see what
10:45
the temperature is. I'm going to guess it's done. It's just whether or not that sauce is ready to go
10:51
right now. Oh no, sauce looks really good. All right. So while I'm messing with this, I'm going to
11:04
take my fries, see if I can be like a magician, dump them out, kind of spread them out a little
11:19
bit and I'm going to throw them in the oven just to kind of keep them warm. So we will
11:24
take a read on my chicken in the middle of the middle. It's a very big important thing
11:30
this is a really slow thermometer well you know it it gets a workout several times a year
11:38
um that may be why the experienced one um is so brown yeah it's been in the oven a lot so you
11:47
leave yours in while it's in the oven i always just take mine after a while all right so we'll
11:52
let that sit and wait for it to go oh that one's going a lot faster oh good there's a reason why
12:00
that one looks like it's been used. It has. That's because it's good. Okay so this is at 155
12:10
ish so I'm going to throw it back in the oven for a little bit. We want poultry to get to 165
12:15
so I'm going to throw that in there and underneath the fries and just wait a little bit longer and
12:22
dinner will be ready. Okay since I now have two things in the oven at the same time I'm going to
12:28
I'm going to boost my temperature in the oven just a little bit. Right now it's at 375
12:32
I'm going to pump it up to 400 just because when you have multiple things in an at home
12:40
oven, commercial ovens, it's a little different, but at home you want to kind of crank that
12:45
up just a little bit more and keep an eye on it, but it'll help things cook a little
12:50
bit better. Okay, so I think everybody, everything is pretty well ready
12:54
So I'm going to pull out my French fries first. I'm going to give my chicken an extra couple of minutes because I know that's not going
13:00
to hurt, um, let that sauce get a little bit thicker. I'm going to pull these puppies out
13:05
Oh my gosh. Beautiful. Look at those gorgeous things. Aren't they amazing? Definitely
13:11
Um I am going to salt them just a teeny weeny bit because quite frankly even though our men are not huge salt people they have a cow if there nothing on them
13:24
So I just put a little bit on them. And I'm going to go ahead and transfer those to a serving dish
13:33
We did good, Kath
13:43
We did. They looked beautiful. They taste good, too. As we know, everything in Portugal is rice and fries and fries and rice, right
13:54
But not everything, they do have vegetables and things like that, don't get me wrong
13:59
You always get a salad with your fish. Oh, okay. Always, always. but predominantly these are the sides and you'll find incredible stuff and lisbon lately really
14:08
especially has been growing um with tourism and stuff so they've been expanding their palate but
14:14
the portuguese it doesn't matter they have really good food and um so we're going to
14:21
do the rice we're going to put this in our serving dish just plain white rice didn't do
14:27
anything fancy to it. I cooked it. Put a little bit of butter in it. And it was, and it was
14:33
made a little mess too. It was plain rice. A lot of it. Yeah. That 17,000 pound bag. All right. I
14:43
don't know where Brighy Deer went, but he'll come and pick that up for us in a little bit
14:47
All right. So our chicken is ready. It is at temperature. Actually, it's a little bit above
14:53
temperature so we're just going to take these bits of chicken and nestle them into our rice a little
15:00
bit all right very nice one dish meal actually it really is and you know you can serve it with
15:09
vegetables or um whatever you know whatever floats your boat have a salad um we actually
15:16
had some leftover coleslaw that we need to get rid of so we're having that and i actually think
15:20
that is a great thing to have next to it because it's light and a little acidic and this is really
15:29
rich and creamy and I think that those two things plus with our french fries good yes they'll be a
15:36
good um looks beautiful all right just stick those right in there well maybe I should wait
15:42
Yeah, let's do that. And actually, can you scrape for me? Be ready to scrape
15:49
Okay. Because I want every bit of the ooey-gooey. Hang on, wait, don't scrape yet
15:54
Let me just pour the good stuff out. All right, so. I'm sure glad we've got a rim on that plate
16:02
Uh-huh. Oh, my goodness. All right, so you can see I've poured out the liquid
16:08
but all the onion stuff is down in the bottom. so Kathy's gonna help me scrape that out and plop it on yeah you definitely need a serving dish with
16:20
some kind of lip or rim because yeah this can get a little messy and if you don't like it this saucy
16:29
I just I think that this sauce is so so good so I make mine a little bit more runny but feel free
16:35
to cook it down more or to use like I used about half a quart you can use less than that um and
16:42
that's fine too I'm all about people changing recipes to suit their own taste because
16:47
we definitely all have them I'm happy are you happy that's beautiful okay so we will put this
16:54
out on the table and call our men folk and we will have some dinner join us will ya
17:01
everything is ready we are having a very portuguese dinner tonight with frango
17:08
and um with served on rice and then some french fries homemade fries and my mother-in-law's
17:16
wonderful coleslaw which she has to give me the recipe for soon because that's really tasty
17:21
it looks marvelous it does it looks good it smells like portugal i'm very happy to dig in so
17:29
I hope that you make this at home. It's such a simple meal and it's really great when you've
17:34
got to feed a crowd. It doesn't really take a whole lot of effort. So bon appetit
#Cooking & Recipes
#Cuisines
#food
#Soups & Stews
#Tourist Destinations