James Martin's One Pot Chicken Chasseur

This is one of the dishes that James made at this year's Good Food Show.  It is my kind of meal, a warming one pot that is perfect remedy for the blustery (and at times bleak!) Autumn weather.  James made hos with chicken pieces but as Hubby as an aversion to eating meat of the bone (an issue I kind of understand) I opted to make this with chicken breast instead, although next time I'd be a bit smarter and get chicken breast's with the skin still on, absolutely no point being health conscious with one of James' recipes lol.

This made for a very tasty dinner last night, we enjoyed it with lashings of hot mashed potato and steamed fine beans.  I do seem to remember James making a HUGE song and dance about the lack of fresh tomatoes when he was making this on stage, yet the recipe in the show guide doesn't call for them at all!??!  Not sure if this is a typo or if James maybe just got himself a bit muddled up ... although, my finished product looks very different from the picture to accompany the recipe.  It was very tasty though so I was happy all the same ;0)

James Martin's One Pot Chicken Chasseur
1.6kg chicken, cut into 10 pieces (I used chicken breast only, 4-6 pieces)
1 tsp olive oil (I used rapeseed oil!)
30g butter
14 baby onions, peeled
2 cloves garlic, crushed
200g small button or chestnut mushrooms, halved
225ml red wine
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 sprigs fresh tarragon (I couldn't lay my hands on any so I substituted parsley instead)
500ml chicken stock

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C.  Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.  Heat the oil and 15g of the butter in a large, heavy based, lidded casserole.  add the chicken pieces and fry for 5 mins on each side until golden.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

Melt the remaining 15g of butter in the pan.  add the baby onions and cook over a medium heat for 5 mins until soft.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 min.  Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 mins.  Add the red wine and tomato puree, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins to reduce.  Stir in the tarragon and pour over the chicken stock.

Return the chicken pieces to the pan.  Cover and cook in the oven for 45 mins.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 2-3 mins before serving.

Serves 4
BBC Good Food Show Guide 2010