Chicken stewed in cider & apples

At the table

By: Jose Pizarro
From: Basque
Serves: 6
Photographer: Laura Edwards

The Basque Country is feted across Spain, and indeed the world, for its culinary creativity. It has more three Michelin-starred restaurants than anywhere else, and I can understand why – there are so many local products that you can be inspired by here.

My inspiration for this dish, as with many of my recipes, came from seeing the ingredients together. When I see them, I just have to create a plate of food. When we were in Astarbe in a beautiful cider house, I saw the chickens hopping around the apple trees, and that was it!

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
	olive oil
1	free-range chicken, (1.8–2 kg)
	sea salt
	freshly ground black pepper
1	apple, peeled, cored and halved
2	onions, finely sliced
2	bay leaves
6	sage leaves
1	cinnamon stick
500ml	cider
400ml	fresh chicken stock
25g	unsalted butter
3	apples, peeled, cored and sliced into 8 pieces
1 teaspoon	caster sugar
75g	sultanas

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Heat a layer of oil in a large casserole dish. Season the chicken inside and out and brown all over in the casserole dish. Set aside and put the halved apple inside the cavity.
Add the onions to the casserole and fry for 10 minutes to soften. Return the chicken to the pan and add the herbs and cinnamon.
Pour in the cider and bubble for a few minutes, then add the stock. Bring to the boil, then cover and transfer to the oven to cook for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, heat a little oil and the butter and fry the rest of the apples with the sugar until golden and caramelised. Add the sultanas and toss in the buttery juices. Add to the casserole about halfway through the cooking time.
Remove the lid of the casserole and turn up the oven to 220°C. Cook for 10 minutes more to brown the top of the chicken, then serve.

Tags:

Chicken stewed in cider & apples

At the table

Ingredients

Method

Recipes

Books

Authors

Collections

Store

The Feed