Recipes / Quick & EasySimple SupperSpeedy Dinner PartiesCasseroleChicken & Poultry / Chicken with Ham, Fennel and Brandy

Casserole, Chicken & Poultry, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Simple Supper, Speedy Dinner Parties

Cook: 30-40 mins

Difficulty: Easy

Chicken with Ham, Fennel and Brandy

In “A Year of Good Eating”, Nigel Slater describes recipes as follows: “There are old favourites you make over and over, recipes that become part of the rhythm of your life, and then there is the stuff of fresh thinking, cooking that is spontaneous and spirited”. This recipe started out life as the latter (and is rapidly moving into the former category). I discovered this recipe by mistake. I couldn’t get 2/3 of the ingredients I needed, and so, I improvised! The result is surprisingly good! So good in fact, that I find myself craving this rather regularly (-I try to tell myself that this is due to the delicious buttery, salty, aniseedy flavours, as opposed to the generous portion of brandy!!). I imagine (rather romantically and idealistically) that this recipe is something you might expect to be served at someone’s home in the French countryside. So, indulge me, and serve this with a bottle of French red (from the Medoc perhaps), and enjoy by dim candlelight.

Ingredients

Method

Ingredients

  • SERVES 2
  • 2 Skin on and bone-in chicken thighs or supremes
  • 1 large Fennell, de-cored and sliced into thin slices (use both bulb and fronds)
  • 2 Pieces of thick-cut ham, cut or ripped into shreds
  • 1 tablespoon Fennel Seeds
  • 2 Peels of Lemon Rind
  • 3 Fresh Bay Leaves
  • A thumb-sized knob of butter
  • 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
  • A Ladel of Brandy or Cognac
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

one. Pre hear the oven to 180ºc. In an ovenproof pan, for which you have a lid, lightly heat the olive oil and the butter. Gently fry the fennel for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, to soften slightly. Add the chicken pieces, season with salt & pepper and the fennel seeds, turn up the heat and brown for 5 minutes on each side. Remove from the heat.

two. In a ladel, set light to the brandy. Pour the flames over the chicken and allow to burn off. Make sure the chicken is off the heat, and in a spacious place when you do this. The flames will stop when the alcohol has burned off. Next add the lemon peel, bay leaves and ham slices to the pan, give everything a good stir to deglaze the bottom of the pan, put on the lid and roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on the size of your chicken.

Serving Suggestion. A watercress salad, rice and a bottle of French wine

Possible Amendment.