Cotswold White Chicken with Brassicas and Smoked Bacon from Executive Chef Adam Smith of Michelin-starred Restaurant Coworth Park

Serves

4

Prep Time

60 mins

Cooking Time

30 mins

Ingredients

For the chicken

• 1 whole Cotswold White chicken
• 1 head of garlic
• 25g thyme
• 250g rosemary
• 200g button mushrooms (thinly sliced)
• 2 banana shallots (thinly sliced)
• 250ml dry white wine
• 2lt white chicken stock
• 500ml double cream
• 1 hispi cabbage
• 250g sprouting broccoli
• 1 Romanesco cauliflower
• 250g wild mushrooms
• 4 tbsp chopped parsley
• 500g smoked bacon/ pancetta

Method

To prepare the chicken

• Cut the chicken in 10 pieces, each piece still on the bone.
• To do this; remove the wings and their tips, take the legs off and cut each in half through the knuckle.
• Cut down the centre of the breast and through the bone, and cut each in half.
• This is classically called cutting for sauté and you will have 2 wings, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks and 4 pieces of breast meat all still on the bone; this helps keep in the moisture and adds big flavour.

To make the chicken

• Heat a thick-bottomed sauté pan and add a little cooking oil, season the chicken and place all skin side down in the pan. Cook for around 10 min until the skin is crispy and golden brown in colour, turn the chicken over and cook for a further 5 min.
• Remove the chicken from the pan and reserve.

To make the sauce

• Slice half of the smoked bacon as thin as you can and bake in between baking trays in the oven at 170°C, this usually takes around 15 min until they are golden and crisp depending on the oven. 
• Add the garlic bulb that has been cut in half, remaining bacon that has been diced, the sliced shallots, sliced button mushrooms, thyme and rosemary; cook these all until they are golden brown in colour and deglaze the white wine, reduce this until a syrup. At this point, add the white chicken stock and simmer for 15min.

To make the brassicas

• While waiting for the sauce, prepare the cabbage, cutting the Romanesco and broccoli into even-sized pieces.
• After 15 mins add the double cream to the stock and bring to the boil, once boiled pass through a sieve and into a clean pan.
• Add the chicken and all the brassicas into the sauce and slowly simmer for around 10 minutes, until the chicken and brassicas are just cooked.

To serve

• Add the chopped parsley and serve in a large bowl, garnish the top with some pan-fried wild mushrooms and bacon crisps.