French,  Savoury

White wine chicken casserole and apple turnovers

chickenwhitewine
It’s that time of year again: The time of year when, in this area of France at least, the countryside becomes speckled with well-stuffed apple turnovers. Upon closer inspection (admittedly not always advisable), the apple turnovers morph into ladies of a certain age, neatly folded in two tending to their vegetable patches. Whenever I see them, I have an overwhelming urge to pick them up by the waist and set them down in our vegetable garden. Perhaps they wouldn’t even notice, and if they did, surely the change of scene would be welcome, although I imagine one patch of weeds looks much like another. In the meantime, my husband serves as our apple turnover, although he’s not nearly as generously-stuffed as some…
bentover2
Ingredients (serves 4)
8 chicken thighs (you can use a mixture of breast and thigh if you prefer)
1 tablespoon flour
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
20g butter
2 red onions, peeled and chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
30g pancetta
5 mushrooms, sliced
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
Sprig of rosemary
350ml dry white wine
500ml chicken or vegetable stock
200g fresh garden peas
Preheat the oven to 150°C. Place the chicken in a bowl, coat with the flour and seasoning and set aside. Heat the oil and butter in a medium-sized casserole dish, add the onions, garlic, pancetta and mushrooms and cook until softened. Set aside and place the chicken in the casserole dish and cook for just over five minutes, turning to brown evenly. Add the carrots, rosemary and wine and continue to cook until reduced by about half. Add the stock and the set aside onion/pancetta and bring to a boil. Cook in the preheated oven for about an hour, adding the peas (and more stock if necessary) 20 minutes before the end of cooking. Delicious served with minted, mashed, potatoes.

5 Comments

  • ourfrenchoasis

    I now have a wonderful image in my mind of picking up some old ladies, preferably several and plopping them all down in my vegetable garden, aka the weed patch at the moment! it needs plenty of work and attention! Hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend. Susan x

    • The Healthy Epicurean

      Wouldn’t it be great to be able to do that! I’m sure they wouldn’t mind, especially if we stayed and chatted to them. I’d be very kind. 🙂 Hope you and the family and assorted animals have a wonderful Easter weekend too. xx PS How’s the ‘Berlin Wall’ holding up?

      • ourfrenchoasis

        I am sure they wouldn’t mind, I’d be super nice, I’d even make them a cup of tea and give them homemade cake!!! I don’t want to sound desperate but I’d do anything for anyone prepared to weed my vegetable garden! The Berlin Wall is looking good, now we just need manpower to build the front wall!!!

  • apuginthekitchen

    I really dislike gardening, the actual work part of it but enjoy looking at beautiful well maintained gardens immensely. If you pick those turnovers up by the waist hoist them over to the US to help me with my mess. Love chicken dish sounds so delicious and with minted mashed potatoes wow. Happy Easter!!

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