Читать книгу Home Made: Good, honest food made easy - Tana Ramsay - Страница 22

Maybe there is a reason why a recipe becomes a cliché – it’s so delicious that it’s cooked far too often. For me, the combination of bacon, chicken, mushrooms and baby onions, slowly cooked in red wine, will always be a winner. That’s why I think recipes like this need to be dusted off and handed on to the next generation. This is how I’ve always made it.

1 medium chicken, weighing about 1.4kg/3lb, jointed into 6 pieces, then breasts cut in half (or 2 breasts, cut in half widthways, plus 2 thighs and 2 drumsticks)

25g/1oz butter

1 tbsp olive oil

300g/11oz shallots, peeled (see Why Not Try …)

150g/5oz rashers of unsmoked streaky bacon, cut into small slices

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1 rounded tbsp plain flour

200ml/7fl oz red wine

300ml/10fl oz chicken stock (or 300ml/10fl oz water with a good-quality chicken stock cube)

250g/9oz button mushrooms, stalks trimmed

4 sprigs of thyme, tied together with kitchen string

salt and pepper

20g pack of fresh flat-leaf parsley, stalks removed and leaves roughly chopped, to serve

FOR THE MARINADE

2 carrots, peeled and halved lengthways

1 stick of celery, halved

1 garlic clove, peeled and bruised

2 bay leaves

300ml/10fl oz red wine

Serves: 4

Prep time: 40 minutes plus marinating overnight

Cooking time: about 1¹/₄ hours

WHY NOT TRY …

The easiest way to peel shallots is to pour boiling water over them, leave for 1 minute, then drain and peel.

Defy tradition and leave in the carrot and celery pieces. Though soft, they taste delicious.

1 Start by marinating the chicken. I think the easiest way is to put the chicken joints, carrot, celery, bruised garlic clove and bay leaves into a large freezer bag. Pour over the wine. Squeeze out any excess air and fasten the bag as tightly as possible with a wire tie. Put the bag into a bowl large enough to accommodate it easily, to make sure none of the marinade leaks over your fridge. Place the bowl in the fridge overnight. Whenever you remember, turn the bag around in the bowl to make sure all the flavours mix together well.

2 When you are ready to start cooking, preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/GM3.

3 Melt the butter and oil in a large cast-iron casserole dish with a tight-fitting lid on a medium heat on the hob. Add the shallots and bacon and fry until brown. Using a slotted spoon, remove the shallots and bacon and put to one side.

4 Carefully remove the chicken from the bag of marinade. Discard the bruised garlic clove but reserve the rest of the marinade. Dry the chicken with absorbent kitchen paper. Carefully place the chicken pieces, skin-side down, in the hot fat in the casserole and fry until browned all over, turning as necessary. Depending on the size of your pan, you may have to do this in batches. When the chicken is evenly browned, return all the pieces to the casserole, add the bacon and shallots and stir in the crushed garlic.

5 Reduce the heat, then sprinkle the flour over the chicken, bacon and shallots and stir into the fat. Fry for a minute or so, then add the wine, chicken stock and the wine from the marinade. Stir well. Add the carrot and celery pieces from the marinade bag and push under the liquid. Stir in the mushrooms and add the thyme. Lightly season with salt and pepper.

6 Bring to the boil, put on the lid and transfer to the oven for 50 minutes, removing after 25 minutes to baste the chicken with the gravy.

7 When the cooking time is complete, remove the thyme, bay leaves, celery and carrot pieces and discard. Skim off any fat from the surface of the dish and check the seasoning. Serve on warm plates, sprinkled with parsley.