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turning back the hands of time ... Chicken with fennel, red onion and pancetta



This is one of our favourite standby recipes which is a bastardisation of a recipe from the River cafe Easy (silver) book, which uses Guinea fowl instead of chicken. I first blogged about it in 2008 but I thought it was worth posting again having made it last week for the Lacosta massive who gave it a pretty universal thumbs up (they could have just been being polite of course!)

 Because it's a one tray bake it is very easy to make and prepare ahead, which makes it perfect for an easy lunch or dinner for a crowd. 

 It is also easy to double it up for a larger group but unless you have a humungous tray, and oven, then I would recommend going for two trays so that you can still arrange all the ingredients in one layer. If you don't you end up not only failing to brown the chicken very well but you also run the risk of poaching the chicken in the wine. 
Ingredients - serves 4


 8 pieces of chicken ( we use thighs or whole legs )

 5 garlic cloves

 2 tablespoons rosemary leaves

 2 red onion

 3 fennel bulbs

 Extra virgin olive oil

 125 gms pancetta ( one piece is best ) cut into 1cm pieces or lardons... or buy them ready chopped if you're feeling lazy but the bigger pieces work better.

 250ml white wine
Method

 Preheat the oven to 200C/ gas mark 6. 

 Peel and finely chop the garlic and chop the rosemary. 
Peel the onion, and cut the onion and fennel into wedges, sixths or eights depending on size ... try to cut them down the core so they stay in wedges rather than falling apart.

 Mix the garlic and rosemary with a generous helping of salt and pepper.

 Put the chicken into a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and add the garlic mixture. Turn each piece over to coat thoroughly. 

 Put the chicken in one layer in a roasting tin and scatter the fennel, red onion and pancetta over. 

 Drizzle with olive oil and roast for 1/2 hour. 

 Add the wine, roast for further 20 minutes. Raise the heat to 225C/gas mark 9 for the last few minutes to brown.

Take the meat and vegetables out and put onto a warm serving dish. Then pour over the sauce. If it is too thin you can reduce it down over a high heat on the hob.

Serve with a green vegetable ... green beans is great ... and maybe some roast potatoes if you're feeding a hungry crowd. 

Comments

Lulu said…
We have had this so many times and it's so versatile, delicious and easy. When I say "I'm doing a Barry" I think this is what everybody thinks they are going to get as it's so delicious. We are having an Ottolenghi take on this tonight which is also delicious but in true Ottolenghi style requires more thought process which quite honestly I often don't have:

http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/roasted-chicken-legs-with-dates-olives-and-capers-shop

and we are having it with

http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/freekeh-pilaf-shop

I'm adding some roasted red pepper strips as the colours of the two are a bit dull.

Whilst I'm sharing what I am up to in the kitchen I made this on a night when both girls were blissfully back home and we all loved it even though we thought we hated turkey:

http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/turkey-courgette-burgers-with-spring-onion-cumin-a-shop

Extreme gardening tomorrow so I'm barbecuing some salmon steaks and doing Ottolenghi's Jersey Royal Potato salad with radishes and samphire which looks quick and easy (I'm adding loads of English asparagus too).

Lulu



April 16, 2016 at 8:23 PM
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