Chicken legs in pinot noir with sour cherries and parsnip purée
Chicken legs in pinot noir with sour cherries and parsnip purée
It’s amazing what you can do with some chicken legs and a packet of dried fruit! This dish is dark, rich and rather grand-looking. You don’t have to use Pinot Noir, but the grape does have cherry tones. Any other light, fruity red wine is fine, though.
Ingrediënten
FOR THE CHICKEN
- 400 ml 14fl oz Pinot Noir
- 400 ml 14fl oz chicken stock
- 4 skin-on bone-in chicken legs drumsticks and thighs attached
- salt and pepper
- 1 –2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 onions halved, each half cut into 4 wedges
- 3 garlic cloves crushed
- 4 tbsp sour cherry juice optional
- 4 sprigs of thyme plus more thyme leaves
- 1 bay leaf
- 5 cm 2in cinnamon stick
- 100 g 3½oz dried sour cherries
FOR THE PARSNIP PURÉE
- 500 g 1lb 2oz parsnips, chopped
- 500 ml 18fl oz chicken stock
- 30 g 1oz unsalted butter
- 75 ml 2½fl oz double cream
- freshly grated nutmeg to taste
- pinch of cayenne pepper or to taste
- juice of ½ lemon or to taste
Instructies
- Reduce the wine and the stock, separately, until they each come to 250ml (9fl oz) of liquid.
- Trim the chicken of any raggedy bits of skin and season with salt and pepper.
- Heat the oil in a sauté pan and brown the chicken legs all over.
- When they’re a good golden colour – and it is really important to get this as it looks and tastes much better in the finished dish – remove them to a plate.
- Pour all but 1 tbsp fat out of the pan.
- Add the onions to the pan and cook over a medium-low heat until they are pale gold.
- Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.
- Pour on the reduced stock and wine, the cherry juice (if you’ve been able to get some), herbs, cinnamon stick and sour cherries.
- Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer.
- Return the chicken legs – together with any juices that have run out of them – to the pan.
- Season, cover and cook for 20 minutes, scooping the wine up over the chicken from time to time.
- Take the lid off and cook for another 20 minutes.
- Put the parsnips in a saucepan, cover with the chicken stock and bring to the boil.
- Reduce the heat a little and cook until completely tender, about 15 minutes.
- Strain, reserving the cooking liquor.
- Put the parsnips in a food processor or blender (a blender produces a smoother purée) and process with all the other ingredients, with just enough of the cooking liquor to make a fine silky purée; remember you are not making a soup, the mixture should be smooth but not too thin.
- Taste for seasoning and adjust any elements you think are not quite right.
- Scrape the purée back into the pan and reheat it gently.
- The juices in the chicken will have reduced and you should be left with enough sauce just to coat the chicken legs and the fruit.
- Taste for seasoning and sprinkle on the thyme leaves.
- Serve the chicken from the sauté pan with the parsnip purée.
