Chicken braised with shallots and chicory on jerusalem artichoke purée
A dish of contrasts – bitter chicory, sweet shallots and nutty Jerusalem artichokes – that comes together very elegantly. I love the colours, too. The palette is completely limited, which gives it a kind of earthy, restrained beauty.
Ingrediënten
FOR THE CHICKEN
- ¼ tbsp olive oil
- 20 g ¾oz unsalted butter
- 8 skin-on bone-in chicken thighs or a mixture of joints
- salt and pepper
- 4 heads of chicory nice fat ones if possible, halved lengthways
- 16 shallots
- 250 ml 9fl oz chicken stock
- 3 sprigs of thyme plus thyme leaves to serve
FOR THE PURÉE
- 750 g 1lb 10oz Jerusalem artichokes
- good squeeze of lemon juice
- 225 ml 8fl oz double cream, plus more if needed
- 50 ml 2fl oz chicken stock, plus more if needed
- 25 g scant 1oz unsalted butter
- grating of fresh nutmeg
Instructies
- Start with the chicken.
- Heat the oil and butter in a sauté pan and brown the chicken pieces on all sides, seasoning with salt and pepper.
- Make sure you don’t burn the fat.
- Remove the chicken and set aside.
- Now colour the cut sides of the chicory in the fat as well – you want it tinged with gold – then remove and set this aside, too.
- Add the shallots to the pan and colour those on the outside as well.
- Return the chicken to the sauté pan with the shallots and add the stock and sprigs of thyme.
- Bring to the boil, then immediately reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer very gently for about 20 minutes.
- Add the chicory to the pan – try and arrange everything in a single layer – and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Make sure that there is still stock left in which to cook the chicory.
- If there is too much liquid, then leave the lid off for the next bit of cooking, so it can reduce.
- The dish is cooked when the juices in the chicken run clear with no trace of pink and the chicory is completely tender.
- Taste the cooking liquids: because you have reduced stock, you shouldn’t need any more salt.
- Meanwhile, to make the purée, cut the Jerusalem artichokes into chunks.
- I don’t bother to peel them, but you can if you want.
- As you cut them up, immediately drop them in a pan of water to which you have added a good squeeze of lemon juice (this stops the artichokes discolouring).
- Bring the water to the boil and cook the artichokes until tender.
- Drain the artichokes and return them to the pan.
- Bring to the boil with the cream, stock, butter, nutmeg and seasoning.
- Heat through, then purée in a blender.
- Taste for seasoning and judge whether you need to add any more cream or stock (or water) for texture and thickness.
- Serve with the chicken.
