I love chicken stews and this is a very fine one made with plump chicken thighs, a mound of chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped rosemary and bay, onion and garlic, everything simmered away in white wine and stock in the oven. I served it with roast parsnips cooked at the same time, revitalized leftover mash (the mash stirred into butter melted in hot milk) and petits pois from the freezer.
Serves 2
Prep: 25 min
Cook: 50 min
4 chicken thighs
flour for dusting
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
few sheets prosciutto or pancetta
½ tsp finely chopped rosemary
1 bay leaf
200g chestnut mushrooms
150ml white wine
150ml chicken stock
Trim the skin and any fat from the chicken thighs. Pat dry, dust with flour and shake dry. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a spacious frying pan and brown the chicken, skin-side first, for 2 minutes a side on a medium-high heat. Meanwhile, halve, peel and finely chop the onion. Crack the garlic, flake away the skin and slice in thin rounds. Bundle up the prosciutto or pancetta and slice in scraps. By now the chicken will be nicely browned. Remove it to a plate. Add the onion to the pan, reduce the heat and cook gently, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Add the prosciutto, garlic, rosemary and bay leaf and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes until the garlic is aromatic. Wipe the mushrooms clean and add to the pan. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes until the mushroom turns shiny. Scoop the contents of the pan into an ovenproof, lidded dish. Return the chicken to the pan, skin side down, add wine and stock and simmer, stirring as best you can, turning after a couple of minutes, so the flour is knocked off the chicken and thickens the stock. Lift the chicken, skin-side up, over the veg, and pour over the stock. Drape with a sheet of parchment touching the food and enough overhang to catch with the lid. Bake at 180C for 40 minutes.