This simple to make chicken dish is great for special occasions, and is another old favourite. Serve with buttered new potatoes and a crisp green salad. The dish was created by Tim Withers of The George and Dragon Pub in Rowde, Wiltshire two or three generations ago. It was first shared by Simon Hopkinson, but I found it in ” Well Tempered Food” by Tamasin Day- Lewis.
Ingredients
- 1 x 2kg organic or free range chicken
- 2 onions, peeled one of them stuck with whole cloves
- 2 carrots, peeled sliced in half lengthways
- 3 sticks celery chopped in half
- 2 leeks trimmed and well washed
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs thyme
- salt
For the sauce and to finish:
- 50 g butter
- 50 g flour
- 400 ml poaching stock
- 300 ml dry white wine
- 250 ml double cream
- 100 g Gruyere cheese grated
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 50 g basill or tarragon leaves chopped
- salt and pepper
- 50 g breadcrumbs
- 25 g Parmesan cheese grated
Servings:
Instructions
- Put the chicken in a large pot, add the vegetables , herbs and salt. Poach very gently in stock for about an hour and a half, skimming off any scum that comes to the surface.
- Once cooked, lift out the bird and leave to cool. Strain the stock through a fine sieve and discard all solids. Leave to settle and lift off any surface fat using several sheets of absorbent kitchen paper.
- Remove all meat from the chicken carcass ( discarding skin and sinew) and cut into large bite sized pieces.
- To make the sauce melt the butter in a pan then add the flour and cook for 3 minutes without browning. Gradually add the hot chicken stock, white wine and cream and stir until thickened.
- Stir in the Gruyere cheese , mustard and tarragon, check seasoning then simmer all together for about 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 230 C, Gas 8.
- Put the chicken on a buttered gratin dish, pour over the sauce and sprinkle with the breadcrumbs and Parmesan. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes untilthe dish is golden brown and bubbling around the edges.
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