Chicken chasseur: a delicious winter treat

Cooking with wine: chicken chasseur recipe

This winter we are spending more time than ever at home. Deprived of things we took for granted, such as trips to our favourite restaurant or dinner parties with friends, there has never been a better time to improve our cooking skills. Simple pleasures are suddenly all important and for many of us our main meal is the highlight of the day. A culinary hug!

Cooking with wine is a great way to add depth and flavour to otherwise ordinary ingredients. We have chosen Stanlake Park Pinot Noir 2018 for these dishes. A good red wine for cooking as it is smooth and intense with delicate notes of red berries, plum, violet and herbs, it pairs beautifully with mushrooms.

If you have chosen to give up meat or alcohol this January (for some of us this feels like a restriction too far), you don’t need to care about substituting red wine in cooking – remember that the alcohol will evaporate during the cooking process, whilst the luscious flavours will remain.

Chicken chasseur is an old French favourite and with good reason, it is simply delicious! Perfect for an irresistible family supper or a dinner party feast. If you make it the day before, the flavours will only improve.

The mushroom chasseur is a great vegetarian/vegan alternative. Adding porcini makes it deep, rich and satisfying so you won’t miss the meat. Although it does marry beautifully with steak! Both dishes can be served with mash, rice or pasta and a green vegetable of your choice.

Chicken chasseur

• 6/8 chicken pieces
• 100g cubed pancetta or bacon
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 50g butter
• 250g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 4 tomatoes, skinned, de-seeded and chopped
• 250ml Pinot Noir
• 400 ml hot chicken stock
• 1 bunch tarragon or thyme, chopped
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Season the flour with salt and pepper and lightly coat the chicken pieces. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil and half the butter in a deep casserole over a medium/high heat.

Brown the chicken in batches, remove and set aside. Put in the pancetta/bacon and fry until golden, add to the chicken. Turn the heat down, adding more olive oil if needed, throw in the onions with the sugar and a pinch of salt. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and remaining butter for a minute, then the mushrooms. Make sure you scrape any residue from the bottom and after a couple of minutes put in the tomato purée and cook out.

Increase the heat and add the red wine, let it bubble and reduce by a third, pour in the stock. Return the chicken and bacon to the pan along with the tomatoes and half the chopped tarragon or thyme.

Turn the heat down, season and simmer for 40 minutes until tender. Check from time to time and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Sprinkle with remaining tarragon or thyme and serve your delicious chicken chasseur.

A good wine paring suggestion, other than the already mentioned Pinot Noir, could be the Regatta white wine from Stanlake Park: fruity but refreshing, very food-friendly and made in England!