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.
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.
Ingredients
- 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
Instructions
- 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.