Serves 3 - 4
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, about 1.5–1.8kg
- 2 tablespoons plain flour, for dusting
- 200g bacon lardons
- 3 celery sticks, diced
- 8 small shallots, peeled and left whole or halved if larger
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 150g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
- 30–40g dried porcini mushrooms
- 4 small rosemary sprigs
- 2 bay leaves
- 500ml medium dry cider
- About 300ml chicken stock
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Buttered jacket potatoes, to serve
Method
Joint the chicken into manageable pieces. Remove the legs and separate each one through the joint into a thigh and drumstick. Remove the breasts from the carcass, keeping the wings attached, then cut each breast in half across the middle, giving you two good pieces from each side. You should have 8 pieces of chicken in total. Keep the carcass for making stock.
Put the dried porcini into a bowl and cover with about 300ml boiling water. Leave them to soak for 15–20 minutes, then lift them out and roughly chop any particularly large pieces. Strain the soaking liquid through a fine sieve and reserve it.
Season the chicken pieces well with salt and pepper, then dust them lightly all over with the flour.
Set a large, heavy casserole over a medium heat. Add the bacon lardons and cook until they begin to crisp and have released plenty of their fat. Lift the lardons out onto a plate, leaving the fat behind in the pan.
Add the chicken pieces to the casserole, skin side down to begin with, and brown them thoroughly in the bacon fat, turning them so they take on a good colour all over. Do this in batches if necessary. Lift the browned chicken out and set aside with the bacon.
Add the celery, shallots, garlic and chestnut mushrooms to the casserole. Add the rosemary and bay leaves and cook for 6–8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are beginning to colour and the shallots have taken on a little colour too.
Return the chicken and bacon to the casserole and add the soaked porcini. Pour in the cider, then add the reserved porcini liquor and enough chicken stock to come about two thirds of the way up the chicken pieces.
Bring everything to a gentle simmer, cover loosely and cook over a low heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour, turning the chicken pieces once or twice, until the chicken is beautifully tender and the sauce has reduced and developed plenty of flavour.
If the sauce seems a little thin, lift the lid for the final 10–15 minutes and let it simmer gently until it has reduced to the consistency you want.
Taste, adjust the seasoning with salt and plenty of black pepper, and serve with hot buttered jacket potatoes.
