Chicken with riesling, leeks and grapes
The richest of the French chicken dishes in this chapter and a good Friday night treat for supper with friends. If you’re not partial to grapes you can use the same recipe, sauté about 125g (4½oz) of quartered button mushrooms once the dish is cooked and gently stir them in instead.
Ingrediënten
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 15 g ½oz unsalted butter
- salt and pepper
- 4 skin-on bone-in chicken legs drumsticks and thighs attached
- 1 onion very finely chopped
- 375 ml 13fl oz dry Riesling
- 3 medium-large leeks
- 150 ml 5fl oz chicken stock
- 3 sprigs of thyme plus leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 150 ml 5fl oz double cream
- 60 g 3oz seedless green grapes, not too big
- squeeze of lemon juice
Instructies
- Heat the oil and butter in a large sauté pan over a medium heat, season the chicken pieces and brown them on both sides until they are a good golden colour.
- Don’t turn the chicken until it is easy to move, or the skin will tear.
- It will take about eight minutes to brown both sides properly.
- Remove the chicken and pour off all but 1 tbsp of the fat in the pan.
- Add the onion and cook over a medium-low heat until it is soft but not coloured.
- Add the Riesling and bring to the boil, stirring to dislodge the essences stuck to the bottom of the pan and reducing the wine by half.
- Remove the dark leaves from the tops of the leeks and any coarse outer leaves.
- Trim the bases.
- Cut each leek into neat lengths of about 4cm (1½in).
- Wash these, keeping them intact.
- Add the stock to the pan and return to the boil.
- Reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer, add the herbs and leeks and return the chicken with any juices that have run out of it.
- Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes.
- Remove the leeks carefully with a slotted spoon – they should be tender by now – and set aside.
- Continue to cook the chicken for another 20–25 minutes, then remove the chicken and reduce the cooking liquid by boiling; you want to end up with about 150ml (5fl oz).
- Add the cream and the grapes and bring to the boil to cook the grapes and reduce the sauce.
- You should end up with a sauce that just coats the back of a wooden spoon.
- Remove the herbs.
- Add the lemon juice and taste for seasoning.
- Return the chicken and leeks to the cream sauce and gently heat through.
- Serve with the extra thyme leaves sprinkled over the top.
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