Comfort in the time of COVID. French Chicken Casserole Recipe.

While we are all adjusting to major changes to our lives and routines right now, I’ve found myself finding comfort in cooking for my family. When my girls were very small, I developed this family friendly, french inspired chicken casserole recipe. It’s friendly on the budget too!

The best part is you can easily adapt it to suit what’s going on in your fridge or herb garden or double the recipe without much effort. A perfect recipe for lazy cooks like me.

Roslyn’s French Chicken Casserole

6 skinless free-range chicken drumsticks or 4 thighs cut in half

1 large leek (white part only) thinly sliced (or two small)

2 cloves of garlic (or a little less if you like)

2 carrots finely diced

2 sticks of celery finely diced

fresh ground pepper to taste

Pinch of salt (I like Maldon sea salt)

1 cup of white wine (or substitute with sherry)

500 ml of chicken stock

1 tablespoon of plain flour of choice (gluten free for us)

3 sprigs of Fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)

3 bay leaves (fresh or dry)

Variations:

2 rashers of finely chopped bacon

A handful of sliced mushrooms

4 Chopped potatoes if you’d like to bulk it up

Method

Set you stove or frypan to a medium/high heat. Adjust as needed.

Brown your chicken in batches depending on the size of your pot. Deglaze them with a little of the white wine. (Easy to do in the electric fry pan). Take them out and set aside.

Next soften your leeks. You can add your carrot and celery here. It’s kind of a mirepoix (the holy trinity of french cuisine, but technically you would use 2 parts onion, 1 part carrot and 1 part celery to be a purist). I guess this might take around 5 - 10 minutes.

At this stage, you can add your chicken back in and 500ml of chicken stock. If you would like a thicker gravy, make a paste with your flour and a little of the stock and pour that in.

I just toss in the bay leaves and thyme because I’m a lazy cook, but you may wish to bundle them or finely chop your thyme. Alternatively you could experiment with chopped tarragon, but go easy as it can be intense in flavour.

Let everything simmer for 25 minutes or so, checking every once in a while and your ready to eat.

To Serve:

If you’ve put your potatoes in already, you can serve without other starch, otherwise mashed potato or basmati rice are a great side. Or if you are fortunate enough to enjoy, a crusty baguette.

Don’t forget your greens. Steamed broccoli or beans are lovely, or baby spinach leaves tossed in the pan 1 minute before serving.