Roast Chicken With Morel Sauce

This tender roast chicken dish is served with morel sauce, sautéed potatoes, and grilled asparagus. Each part of the dish is well seasoned, using fresh local produce, and each ingredient is chosen to compliment the next one. Morels are wild mushrooms found all over the British Isles, they have a creamy white stem, conical cap and a pitted honeycomb-like fruit body which is hollow inside. They are normally found growing wild in dry, sandy areas so it is important to wash them well to get rid of any grit before cooking. If morel’s are out of season utilize a similar earthy tasting wild mushroom.

Roast Chicken With Morel Sauce Recipe

Serves 4

Recipe Ingredients:

Chicken

• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 garlic cloves, lightly crushed in their skins
• 4 chicken breasts, with skins
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Few sprigs of thyme
• Few knobs of butter
• 100g fresh morels
• Squeeze of lemon juice

Morel sauce

• 10-12 dried morels
• Olive oil, for cooking
• 3 large shallots, peeled and finely sliced
• 1 thyme sprig
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
• 175ml dry white wine
• 175ml chicken stock
• 250ml double cream

Grilled asparagus

• 300g asparagus spears
• Olive oil
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Charlotte potatoes with garlic, pancetta and thyme

• 8 large Charlotte potatoes, about 500g in total
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• Olive oil, for cooking
• 1 head of garlic, cut in half horizontally
• A few sprigs of thyme
• 100g pancetta, cut into cubes

Recipe Method:

In advance soak the dried morels (for the sauce) in a little hot water for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180˚C

In an oven-proof frying pan (no plastic handles) gently fry the crushed garlic in the oil over moderate heat for 2 minutes then add the thyme. Pat the chicken breasts dry then season all over with some sea salt and black pepper. Fry the chicken, skin-side down, in the oil for 5 minutes or until the skin is golden and crisp. Turn the chicken over, add the butter to the pan, and sear the other side while spooning the melted butter and oil over for 2 minutes. Turn the chicken once again, so that the skin is facing upwards, then place the frying pan in the oven and roast for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through. Baste once or twice during this time.

Make the morel sauce in the meantime. Drain and cool the morels, (reserving the liquid). Heat a little olive oil in a saucepan and gently fry the shallots, thyme and garlic for 5 minutes until golden. Add the morels, a little more oil and seasoning and fry for 5 minutes, then carefully pour in most of the reserved morel soaking liquid (leaving the sediment behind).

Add the wine and reduce on a high simmer until most almost totally reduced and thickened. Add the chicken stock and simmer on a high heat for 10 minutes, until reduced by half. Add the cream and simmer until thickened to the consistency of single cream. This needs to be passed through a sieve, pressing the mushrooms and shallots to extract as much flavour as possible. Taste, season, and return the cleared sauce to the pan.

Gently fry off the fresh morels in butter, with some seasoning – finish with a squeeze of lemon juice, and keep warm.

Once the chicken is out of the oven rest the meat while you gently reheat the morel sauce. After 10 minutes of resting slice each chicken breast in two, horizontally, and season each half. Arrange the pieces on warm plates, pour the sauce around, and scatter with the cooked fresh morels. Serve with the asparagus and sautéed potatoes, made below.

For the asparagus: Break off the tough and woody stems at the natural base of the asparagus spears. Heat a griddle pan until almost smoking. Brush the asparagus with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Transfer the asparagus to the griddle pan with a pair of tongs and griddle until tender, turning them now and again to cook evenly.

For the sautéed potatoes: Peel the potatoes and cut into even 1cm cubes. Parboil in salted water for 3 minutes. Drain well and pat dry with kitchen paper. Heat a little oil in a frying pan. Gently fry the potatoes with the garlic and thyme until the potatoes are almost cooked. Add the pancetta and continue to cook, until the pancetta is golden brown and crisp on the edges. Remove the thyme and garlic and check for seasoning.