Off Duty Chef: Bringing It Home airs Wednesdays at 8.30pm on RTÉ One.

Ingredients

Serves 4

  • 1 whole chicken, cut for sauté (broken down into boneless breast, thighs, drumsticks.
  • 500ml red wine (traditionally pinot noir)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 8 cloves garlic, peeled
  • Handful thyme
  • 1 tbsp cracked black pepper
  • 1 medium brown onion, peeled and cut into wedges
  • 4 carrots, cut into thumb sized chunks
  • 200g plain flour
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree
  • 2 chicken stockpots
  • 1 heaped tsp honey
  • 500ml water
  • 100g small button mushrooms
  • 100g thick bacon lardons
  • 100g pickled pearl onions (from jar)
  • 4 slices sliced pan
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • Handful parsley leaves, to garnish

Method

  1. Start by marinating your chicken. Place it in a large container and cover with the red wine. Add the bay leaves, garlic cloves, thyme and black pepper. Mix well and cover, leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours or ideally overnight.
  2. The following day, strain the chicken from the wine but keep all the liquid. Preheat your oven to 150c.
  3. Now get a heavy based casserole dish on the heat and add a good amount of vegetable oil. Allow it to get smoking hot.
  4. Dust the chicken in the flour and add it to the pot in batches to brown, rest the browned pieces on a plate in the meantime. You may need to top up the vegetable oil as you go. Once the pieces are browned, clean out the base of the pan if it needs it.
  5. Now go into the pot with the brown onion and carrot pieces and get some colour on them. After about 2 mins, return the chicken to the pan along with the tomato paste and 2 further tbsp of flour. Cook this out for 1 minute and then it's time to go in with the wine marinade, including the garlic and herbs.
  6. Reduce the wine by half before adding the water, stockpots and honey. Bring the mix to the boil and remove from the heat. Find space in the liquid to add your button mushrooms, bacon lardons and pickled pearl onions. Place in the oven and cook for 1.5 hours until the chicken leg pieces are soft and the sauce has thickened.
  7. Place a large non-stick pan on a low heat and add the butter. Cut the sliced pan into heart shapes using a cutter or a knife. Add these to the pan and cook slowly until evenly golden brown. Serve the chicken in bowls and garnish with the croutons and some parsley leaves.