Description:
I made this for X'mas dinner, following a recipe from Nigel Slater of the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2001/nov/25/foodanddrink.shopping
He has some great suggestions on the type of wine, bacon, and what kind of chicken to choose to get closest to the original taste of the dish.
It's a stew type dish, that means you need sufficient time - best is if you have all day to do the preparations and cooking the dish.
You will need wine too and it should be a full bodied red wine - as Burgundy (Bourgogne) wine is really expensive here, I chose a Shiraz from Australia - it will have the berry flavour and body that you need.
I didn't add the cognac - I found some other recipes and it seemed something that is optional.
A rooster is hard to get here, but I choose a kampung chicken and added some extra chicken legs and wings to the dish as well.
Below is my adopted version of Nigel Slater's recipe.
Upali brought his camera along, and I wasn't in the mood to take pictures, so photo courtesy of Upali Kohomban.
Ingredients:
a large kampung chicken, cut into large pieces + added extra chicken legs and wings - kept the neck, feet and some of the bony parts to make the stock.
an onion, a carrot and a few peppercorns for the stock
150g bacon (couldn't get it in the piece - so bought a packet of thick slices)
olive oil
2 medium sized yellow onions
a large carrot
4 ribs of celery
4 cloves of garlic
2 tbsps flour
a bottle of red wine
4 or 5 small sprigs of thyme
3 bay leaves
12 shallots, peeled (whole)
boiled baby potatoes with added herbs and a warmed with a bit of butter, to serve
Directions:
Put the chicken bony pieces, neck, feet and other parts that you don't want to eat into a pot, cover with water, add an onion and a carrot, half a dozen whole peppercorns and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and let it simmer to a stock until you need it.
Cut the bacon into short strips; they need to be thicker than a match but not quite as thick as your little finger. Put them, together with the olive oil (or butter if you prefer that), into a thick-bottomed casserole - one of enamelled cast iron would be perfect - and let them cook over a moderate heat. Stir the bacon from time to time - it mustn't burn - then, when it is golden, lift it out into a bowl, leaving behind the fat in the pan.
Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and place them in the hot fat in the casserole, so that they fit snugly yet have room to colour. Turn them when the underside is pale gold. The skin should be honey coloured rather than brown - it is this colouring of the skin, rather than what wine or herbs you might add later, that is crucial to the flavour of the dish. Lift the chicken out and into the bowl with the bacon. I had to do the baking of the chicken in batches as my pan wasn't large enough.
By now you should have a thin film of goo starting to stick to the pan. This is where much of your flavour will come from.
While the chicken is colouring in the pan, peel and roughly chop the onions and carrot, and wash and chop the celery (I did this before starting the cooking, but if you can multi-task you can do it at this stage). With the chicken out, add the onions and carrot and celery to the pan and cook slowly, stirring from time to time, until the onion is translucent and it has gone some way to dissolving some of the pan stickings. Add the shallots and garlic (sliced), as you go. Return the chicken and bacon to the pan, stir in the flour and let everything cook for a minute or two before pouring in the wine and tucking in the herbs. Spoon in ladles of the simmering chicken stock until the entire chicken is covered. Bring to the boil, then, just as it gets there, turn the heat down so that the sauce bubbles gently. Cover partially with a lid.
Check the chicken after 40 minutes to see how tender it is. It should be soft but not falling from its bones. It will probably take about an hour, depending on the type of chicken you are using. Once the chicken is tender, take out the chicken pieces and put them in a bowl.
Turn the heat up under the sauce and let it bubble enthusiastically until it has reduced a little. As it bubbles down it will become a bit thicker - though not thick - and will become quite glossy. Let it reduce to your liking - I actually liked the sauce and didn't let it get very thick.
Return the chicken to the pan with the sauce and serve with the potatoes.
For the potatoes I used baby potatoes, peeled them, boiled them, drained, then when my guests arrived, I heated them up quickly by melting a bit of butter in the pot, adding the potatoes and a few herbs and tossing them around in the pot for a few minutes, just to get them warm. Don't add too much butter, it's really just to warm them up again - so that you can prepare all and don't need to do too much when the guests get there.
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