Chicken Fricasee with Pommes Anna
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
- Olive oil for frying
- 1.8kg/4lb. chicken, cut into pieces
- 1/2 cup plain all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 golden eschallots, peeled and finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 4-5 sprigs of fresh tarragon
- 3/4 cup white wine
- 3/4 cup chicken stock
- 1/2 cup cream
- 300g/10.6ozs. Swiss brown mushrooms, thinly sliced
- Salt and pepper to taste
Step 1 - Heat the olive oil in a pot and while it is heating, mix the flour with the salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken in this (you can omit this step with the flour if you want it to be gluten free) and then brown the chicken on all sides. Do this is 2-3 lots as it won't likely fit into the pot. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
Step 2 - Add some oil and saute the eschallots and garlic cloves in the same pot until translucent. Add the bay leaves, tarragon, white wine, stock, cream and add the chicken pieces back into the pan and put the lid on and simmer for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 220C/440F.
Step 3 - Remove the chicken pieces and place them skin up in a baking tray. Roast in a 220C/440F oven (I put them with the Pommes Anna below) for 10-15 minutes or until golden browned. Meanwhile add the mushrooms to the sauce and heat to a simmer and then allow the mushrooms to cook and the sauce to reduce with the lid off for around 15 minutes or so. Serve the sauce on top of the chicken in the baking dish.
Pommes Anna
Light work is made of this if you use a mandolin. If you do this by knife it may drive you a bit mad. Just a warning...
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
- 1kg/2.2lbs. potatoes
- 100g/3.5ozs. butter, melted
- 1 clove garlic, very finely minced
- Salt and pepper to season
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 220C/440F. Wash and slice the potatoes using a mandolin (I put it on setting 2, the middle setting). Take two round tins of around the same size and line the bases. Mix the garlic with the butter. Layer the potatoes in one drizzling over the butter over every quarter or so. Finish with a generous drizzle of butter on top.
Step 2 - Bake for 25 minutes or until crispy golden. Then take the other round pan and doing this over the sink, flip the potatoes so that the crispy top ends up on the bottom. Bake for another 10 minutes and repeat the flipping action until all of the potatoes are crispy and fork tender. If you are feeling lazy you can just leave them in the pan and not flip them too. I won't tell anyone ;)