Slow Cooking Sunday - Chicken Chasseur

Increasingly I am finding that on Sundays in winter I am inclined to engage in a little slow cooking - either in my le creuset cast iron casserole cocotte or in the slow cooker.

My parents gave me a slow cooker for the Christmas before last, and I must confess shamefully that it was not until January this year that I managed to pull it out and take off the plastic. Mum had been telling me about the Pea and Ham Soup she had made in the crockpot and I was pretty inspired, plus I had a whopping great ham bone to deal with. I'm very attached to my le creuset cast iron pots (actually, most of mine are the cheaper imitation, but they do the job!) I use these frequently for stews and soups, but sometimes, particularly on wintery sundays, I have been bunging things in the crockpot and letting them bubble away for much of the day. There is nothing more comforting that having a cosy Sunday afternoon in, with a good book or a movie on the telly, all the chores done and dinner taking care of itself. All that's left is to mash some potatoes and open a bottle of red!

Last Sunday I had a real hankering for a favourite dish from my youth, Chicken Chasseur, and I thought I'd team it with my new Sunday slow cooker tradition. I'm not sure how it came about that we would eat such a meal, but my mum would cook us chicken chasseur from time to time and this became my very favourite thing as a teen, something I would request for birthday and special meals. Only recently did I discover that she frequently made it from a packet (the shock!). Growing up, I would request this with chicken breast meat, despite Mum's protests that it would be tough and dry - I had a real aversion to 'grey meat' in my chicken and would never touch a fatty, gristly thigh. I must confess to still being a bit iffy about chicken thigh meat but I have come to learn that, in much the same way the tougher cuts of beef turn into something deliciously soft and sticky when cooked slowly, chicken dishes which are slow cooked are much tastier and deliciously moist if made with the thigh cut. It doesn't stop me turning my nose up a little in the preparation, however!

Slow Cooker (or, Slow Cooked in the Oven) Chicken Chasseur
serves 4-6

This is kind of like the classic French dish, Coq a Vin, but made with white wine instead of red wine. Chasseur is the French word for 'Hunter', and this sauce is so called as it is frequently teamed with game, like venison or rabbit or game fowl. I consulted Julia Child's bible before launching into this experiment, and she teams it with Veal, which is wrong in my world for Chasseur sauce has always accompanied Chicken for me (but I imagine rabbit would be delicious...)

By the way, you don't need a slow cooker for this one, it's just the way I put the recipe together. By all means keep it on the hob for a couple of hours or put a casserole in a moderate oven (see below for a discussion on this).

What you need:

1kg boneless chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into 2 or 3 pieces, depending on size
6 rashers bacon, chopped
vegetable or olive oil for browning
600g mushrooms, sliced or quartered, depending on size (I use both button mushrooms and field mushrooms, and I quarter the buttons and slice the field mushrooms about a half cm thick)
2 red onions, peeled, halved lengthways, sliced 1/2cm thick lengthways
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
2 tbs tomato paste
400g tin diced tomatoes (and their juice)
2 cups chicken stock (low salt, if you are using bought stock)
7g dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in 1/4 cup warm water for 20 min and then chopped (juice reserved) - or 2 tsp porcini powder
1 tbs fresh thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 freshly chopped Italian flat leaf parsley.

What to do:

In a saute pan, cook the bacon over medium-high heat about 8-10 minutes until browned and crispy. With a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to the crockpot bowl, reserving the bacon fat. In the same pan, using the hot bacon fat over medium high heat, brown the chicken both sides, in batches, and season with salt and pepper whilst doing so. Transfer chicken to slow cooker.

Returning the same saute pan to the heat, use any leftover bacon fat (or top up with 1-2 tbs vegetable/olive oil) and saute mushrooms with onion and garlic and a pinch of salt for about 10-15 minutes until mushrooms have started to brown and the onions have softened. Stir in wine and the tomato paste and allow to bubble away for a little while until the wine has reduced by half (about 7-10 min). Add to the crockpot, together with the tomatoes, 1 & 1/2 cups of the stock, porcini mushrooms and their reserved liquor (if using porcini powder, just mix this into th stock before adding to the slow cooker pot), thyme, bay leaves and chilli. Cover and cook on low for about 4 hours until chicken is tender.

Remove chicken from the slow cooker and place with a slotted spoon with some of the veggies into a serving dish. Cover to reserve heat.

Combine the flour with the remaining 1/2 cup stock and whisk until smooth. Stir into the reserved sauce in the crock pot, cover and allow to bubble away about 20 mins further until sauce has thickened and the flour has been cooked (if you taste the sauce, it is done when it no longer tastes 'floury'). Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir through the parsley.

To serve, spoon the mushies/onions over the chicken and spoon over some of the sauce. Serve with creamy mash and crusty bread, and pass a little jug of extra sauce around the table.

* * *

If you are in a hurry - you could probably bung all the ingredients directly into the slow cooker without browning (except for the flour and 1/2 cup stock, and the parsley, adding these at the end as instructed above). I am sure it will be tasty, but I don't think it would be nearly as rich a flavour doing it this way, so I urge you to take the extra time and go through the browning and sauteing stages I have indicated above.

Also, as mentioned, you don't need to do this in a slow cooker. You can brown and saute the ingredients in an oven proof, heat proof casserole according to the directions above, but return all the browned ingredients to the casserole with the tomatoes, stock, porcinis, herbs and chilli. Reserve a 1/2 cup stock and the flour and parsley. Bring the casserole contents to the boil on the hotplate, before covering and transferring to a 150 degree oven for about 2 hours until chicken is tender. Follow the directions above with regard to the remaining 1/2 cup stock and flour mix, and the parsley.