Chicken Hot Pot
INGREDIENTS:
1½ kg chicken pieces with skin on
60g butter
12 baby pickling onions
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 tin of condensed cream of chicken soup
1 clove garlic crushed
12 baby carrots
16 snow peas
16 small asparagus spears
12 button mushrooms
1 tbs chopped chives
“GOOD WINTER COOKING WITH A BEAUTIFUL GLOSSY SAUCE”
Season the chicken portions well with salt and pepper. Heat half the butter in a pan and cook the chicken over medium heat until well browned all over. Remove pieces and arrange on the bottom of a large casserole dish or oven pot. Arrange the onions evenly around the chicken.
Pour the wine into the frying pan and deglaze over a high heat, scraping down the sides and base of the pan. Reduce heat to medium, and add the stock and garlic. Then whisk in the soup and mix thoroughly. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Pour sauce over the chicken, then cover and bake in a medium oven for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile steam the vegetables separately until they are just softening, but retain some crunch. As you remove them from the steamer, plunge them into iced water immediately, and set aside.
Heat the remaining butter in the fry pan, and sauté the mushrooms lightly; stirring constantly.
Drain the blanched vegetables. Place mushrooms, along with the vegetables on top of the chicken, covering as much of it as you can. Cover and cook for another 20 minutes, or until the chicken and vegetables are tender.
Skim off any obvious fat, and gently stir through the vegetables so that everything is coated, taking care not to break any of them up.
Place two chicken portions on each serving plate, and divide up the vegetables evenly, then ladle some sauce over the top, and garnish with the chopped chives.
Serves four easily.
TRY TO FIND TRUE PICKLING ONIONS FOR THIS RECIPE INSTEAD OF SHALLOTS. IF YOU HAVE TO USE SHALLOTS, SPEND SOME TIME SELECTING THE ONES THAT APPEAR TO BE IN A SINGLE SEGMENT. WHEN SKINNING THE ONIONS, LEAVE THE BASE INTACT, AS THEY WILL HOLD TOGETHER BETTER.
YOU CAN ALSO USE CHICKEN MARYLANDS FOR THIS DISH (ONE PER PERSON), BUT PROBABLY EXTEND THE INITIAL COOK TIME BY 10 MINUTES.
Not hard - but a bit of effort required.